MAY  80  1911     *j 


^Stolen  stHV^ 


BR  121  .M352  1911 

Mains,  George  Preston,  1844- 

1930. 
Modern  thought  and 

traditional  faith 


MODERN  THOUGHT 

AND 

TRADITIONAL  FAITH 


by  y 

GEORGE   PRESTON    MAINS 


r\> 


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r, 


L*     may  ;*o  1911 


NEW     YORK  :     EATON     &     MAINS 
CINCINNATI :  JENNINGS  &  GRAHAM 


Copyright,  191 1,  by 
EATON  &  MAINS 


TO  ALL  FELLOW-SEEKERS  AFTER  TRUTH,  MEN 
WHO  BELIEVE  THAT  TRUTH  ALONE  CON- 
TAINS HIGHEST  VALUES,  AND  WHO  EAR- 
NESTLY SEEK  TO  KNOW  THE  TRUTH  THAT 
THEREBY  THEY  MAY  THE  BETTER  KNOW 
GOD,  THIS   VOLUME  IS  LOVINGLY  INSCRIBED. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface vii 

Introduction xvii 

CHAPTER  I 


The  Middle  Ages. 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Renaissance 17 

CHAPTER  III 
Scientific  Exploration 29 

CHAPTER  IV 
Philosophy  and  Critical  Science 43 

CHAPTER  V 
Some  Considerations  by  the  Way 59 

CHAPTER  VI 
Personal  to  the  Reader 79 

CHAPTER  VII 
Hebrew  History 89 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Old  Testament  Origins 107 

CHAPTER  IX 
New  Testament  Criticism 127 

CHAPTER  X 
Growth  of  Interpretation 147 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  Kingdom  and  Humanity 171 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XII  PAGa 

Christ  and  the  Modern  Age 201 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Christ  and  the  Modern  Age  (Continued) 2  r7 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Miracles  and  Other  Wonders 241 

Bibliography 267 

Index 273 


PREFACE 

There  has  never  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  scholar- 
ship when  Truth  for  Truth's  sake  was  so  earnestly 
pursued  as  now.  There  has  never  been  an  age  when 
the  scholar  was  so  fully  and  critically  equipped  for  the 
ascertainment  of  Truth  as  in  the  present.  It  is  in  these 
convictions  that  this  book  is  written. 

The  ground  reviewed  in  this  volume  is  mostly  his- 
torical, and  the  greater  part  of  the  facts  as  set  forth 
have  long  been  accepted  without  challenge.  At  the 
risk  of  appearing  quite  elemental,  I  have,  in  the  earlier 
chapters,  traversed  a  history  which  to  scholars  has 
long  been  familiar.  These  chapters,  while  not  exhaustive 
as  discussions,  do,  I  believe,  so  indicate  the  character 
of  the  mediasval  ages,  the  faith,  the  science,  the  political 
conditions  of  those  ages,  as  to  make  sufficiently  clear 
the  character  of  the  background  from  which  the  modern 
thought-world  has  emerged. 

Owing  to  mental  habits  which  are  controlling  in 
many  minds,  and  which  have  been  domesticated  in  tra- 
ditional thinking,  I  may  not,  perhaps,  hope,  especially 
in  the  brief  section  of  the  book  devoted  to  the  history 
of  biblical  criticism,  to  meet  in  all  cases  with  sym- 
pathetic readers.  I  can  only  say,  however,  that  through- 
out the  preparation  of  this  volume  I  have  been  infinitely 
far  removed  from  a  desire  to  disturb  the  faith  of  any 
for  the  sake  simply  of  so  doing. 

There  are  some  things,  however,  which  seem  to  me 
reasonably  certain.     If  it  be  true  that  any  minds  are 


via  PREFACE 

resting '  in  a  traditional  view,  however  cherished  such 
view,  which  does  not  in  itself  represent  the  real  truth, 
the  truth  for  which  an  enlightened  scholarship  must 
stand,  then  it  is  far  better  that  such  persons  should  be 
disturbed  rather  than  that  they  should  remain  content 
in  error.  Nothing  in  the  last  resort  is  of  value,  nothing 
will  finally  stand,  save  the  truth.  A  traditional  error 
in  religious  faith,  however  ancient  its  history  or  respect- 
able its  associations,  might  to-day  prove  an  unmeasured 
peril  to  the  Christian  Church.  The  educated  generation, 
now  so  surely  coming  to  the  front,  is  by  the  very  proc- 
esses of  its  training  largely  critical.  It  may  be  accepted 
with  absolute  certainty  that  the  controlling  mind  of 
this  generation  will  not  rest  in  any  faith  which  cannot 
stand  the  test  of  most  critical  examination.  The  ques- 
tion of  criticism  fundamentally  is  one  of  immeasurably 
greater  importance  than  that  of  disturbing  or  failing 
to  disturb  the  favored  notions  of  an  unscholarly  belief. 
It  is  a  question  of  so  addressing  Christian  truth  to  the 
high-school  and  university-bred  young  life  of  the  present 
world  as  to  command  both  their  intelligence  and  their 
conscience.  No  generation  of  mind  has  been  trained 
in  an  intellectual  atmosphere  so  fraught  with  the  spirit 
of  scientific  research,  of  philosophical  criticism,  with  a 
passion  for  accuracy  of  knowledge,  as  that  which  sur- 
rounds the  younger  life  of  to-day. 

Disturbance  of  old,  and  often  cherished,  views  has 
always  been  an  incident  of  intellectual  progress.  It  is 
a  part  of  the  price  and  of  the  risk  which  the  world  has 
to  pay  for  all  its  real  advances.  But  such  disturbance 
would  better  occur  a  thousand  times  over  than  the 
persistent  attempt  to  bind  the  Church  to  views  which 


PREFACE  ix 

the  educated  mind  of  the  age  has  not  only  outgrown, 
but  which  it  utterly  rejects.  Where  one  mind  would 
make  shipwreck  of  faith  because  of  disturbance  of 
inherited  views,  a  score  of  more  valuable  minds  would 
pass  beyond  all  control  of  a  Church  which  would  refuse 
hospitality  to  what  a  learned  age  must  accept  as  the 
critical  and  approved  findings  of  truth. 

But  it  is  time  that  another  side  of  this  whole  question 
of  criticism  should  be  clearly  stated  and  emphasized. 
There  is  really  no  reason,  not  one,  why  the  faith  of 
the  humblest  Christian  should  be  in  the  slightest  sense 
disturbed,  no  reason  why  the  ardor  and  devotion  of 
the  most  simple  worshiper  should  be  in  any  measure 
cooled  or  lessened,  by  the  legitimate  findings  of  biblical 
criticism.  As  in  all  fields  of  research,  some  minds  have 
doubtless  entered  viciously  into  the  sphere  of  this  crit- 
icism. But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  fruits  of  biblical 
criticism  as  handed  over  to  the  Church  have  been  win- 
nowed and  gathered  by  devout,  consecrated,  and  most 
capable  Christian  minds.  The  holy  mission  of  this 
criticism  has  been  not  to  destroy,  but  to  upbuild.  The 
summed-up  purpose  and  results  of  both  the  textual 
and  literary  criticism  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  have  been 
to  give  to  the  world  the  Bible,  the  Bible  alone,  in  its 
purest  form.  The  Bible,  in  its  passage  to  us  from  the 
early  Middle  Ages,  has  had  foisted  upon  it  many  tra- 
ditional errors  and  false  interpretations.  It  has  been 
the  mission  of  criticism  to  free  the  Bible  from  these 
obscuring  errors.  And  so  it  has  resulted  that  at  no 
time  during  its  history  has  the  Bible  as  a  book  been  so 
unincumbered  with  human  traditions,  with  false  inter- 
pretations; at  no  time  has  it  been  so  pure  in  its  text, 


x  PREFACE 

so  well  known  in  its  literary  history  and  in  the  chron- 
ological order  of  its  books,  as  at  the  present.  Never 
before  have  its  spiritual  teachings  shone  so  beautifully, 
and  never  has  the  historic  Christ  stood  forth  from  its 
pages  so  impressively,  as  to-day.  The  Bible  was  never 
so  well  understood,  and  never  has  it  had  so  free  oppor- 
tunity to  speak  forth  its  own  unmixed  and  original 
messages,  as  to-day. 

And  all  this  excellence  of  result  has  been  secured  with- 
out the  destruction,  or  even  disturbance,  of  a  single 
vital  Christian  truth.  The  Bible  remains  more  intel- 
ligibly than  ever  the  record  of  heaven-inspired  messages 
to  men.  From  cover  to  cover  it  is  luminous  with  the 
revelation  of  God.  The  matchless  portraiture  of  the 
Christ,  a  creation  which  it  would  be  impossible  for  all 
the  intellectual  and  artistic  geniuses  of  the  race  to  pro- 
duce, stands  forth  in  clearer  and  more  unquestioned 
light  than  ever  before.  The  critical  process  has  not 
disturbed,  much  less  marred,  a  single  promise  or  privilege 
which  the  older  Bible  held  out  to  the  Christian  worshiper. 
In  this  record  there  still  stand  in  untarnished  beauty 
the  doctrines  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  of  redemption 
and  forgiveness  of  sin  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit  to  pardoning  grace  and  to  the 
blessed  and  joyful  fellowship  of  sonship  in  God's  family. 
In  this  record,  as  richly  as  ever,  are  encouragements 
to  prayer,  assurances  of  helpful  and  sufficient  grace  for 
the  Christian's  battling  life,  grace  to  give  patience  in 
trial,  victory  over  temptation,  comfort  in  sorrow,  and 
triumph  in  death.  And,  finally,  like  diamonds  of  the 
first  brilliancy,  set  in  the  very  crown  of  this  revelation, 
there  are  pressed  upon  the  vision  of  the  saints  assur- 


PREFACE  xi 

ances  of  a  blessed  immortality  and  the  inheritances 
of  a  heavenly  hereafter. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  modern  critical  study  of  the 
Bible  should  be  relieved  in  popular  thought  from  its 
hobgoblin  reputation.  The  teachers,  the  trained  and 
competent  scholars  of  the  Christian  Church,  owe  this 
service  to  the  common  good.  It  is  with  this  convic- 
tion that  I,  though  among  the  least  of  the  scholars  in 
Judah,  have  felt  prompted  to  write  this  book.  The  critical 
movement,  while  rendering  the  highest  and  most  indispen- 
sable service  to  Christian  truth,  has,  often  through  misap- 
prehension, often  through  ignorant  and  vicious  caricature, 
been  made  a  stone  of  stumbling  to  the  common  thought. 
It  is  a  high  duty  for  men  in  responsible  places  as  teachers 
in  the  Christian  Church  to  lift  this  burden  of  popular 
misconception  from  this  most  beneficent  work. 

It  seems  clear  that  very  much  of  popular  misappre- 
hension and  consequent  damage  to  popular  faith  in 
revelation  might  have  been  avoided  if  the  leading  scholars 
of  evangelical  denominations  had  made  it  their  task 
to  set  forth  clearly  and  calmly  to  the  world  the  ascer- 
tained results  of  biblical  critical  study.  Dr.  William 
Sanday,  perhaps  the  foremost  authority  in  New  Testament 
Christology  in  the  world  of  English  scholarship,  says: 
"The  theologians  ought  to  carry  the  nation  with  them 
in  each  step  of  their  own  progress;  they  ought  to  warn 
the  nation  what  is  coming,  and  they  ought  to  inform 
the  nation  as  soon  as  it  has  come.  It  is  perhaps  true 
that  we  theologians  have  been  rather  backward  in  doing 
this,  and  that,  as  a  consequence,  some  things  have  come 
to  the  nation  in  a  more  startling  form  and  with  a  greater 
degree  of  seeming  novelty  than  they  really  possessed." 


xii  PREFACE 

Frankly,  as  to  my  own  great  denomination,  I  can 
but  feel  that  we  have  not  as  yet  reached  a  desirable 
adjustment  to  the  critical  movement.  That  such  adjust- 
ment will  finally  come  there  can,  I  think,  be  no  question. 
The  ranks  of  both  our  ministry  and  laity  are  increasingly 
recruited  by  university  and  specially  trained  minds.  Men 
who  have  received  their  schooling  and  culture  at  the 
very  seats  of  critical  learning  cannot  remain  ignorant 
of  critical  processes,  and  they  will  not  always  remain 
silent.  But  thus  far  there  would,  I  think,  be  little  to 
justify  the  claim,  if  made,  that  from  the  official  leader- 
ship of  this  Church  there  has  emanated  very  much 
to  encourage  our  younger  educated  minds  in  cultivating 
familiarity  with  modern  processes  of  biblical  critical 
study.  It  must  be  admitted  by  the  observant  student 
that,  so  far  as  American  Methodism  is  concerned,  in 
its  attitude  toward  the  critical  movement,  it  is  clearly 
not  abreast  with  that  of  the  mother  Wesleyan  Church 
in  England. 

This  Church,  however,  in  view  of  the  intellectual 
atmosphere  in  which  it  was  born,  in  view  of  the  broad 
intellectual  tolerance  of  its  great  founder,  in  view  of 
the  attitude  of  some  of  its  early  and  most  famous  scholars, 
ought  to  be  among  the  very  foremost  of  religious  bodies 
to  welcome  and  to  encourage  a  reverent,  yet  a  free, 
untrammeled,  critical  investigation  in  all  fields  of  reli- 
gious truth. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  many  who  join  in  the  traditional 
laudation  of  Mr.  Wesley  as  the  great  founder  of  Method- 
ism fail  to  share  with  or  to  appreciate  his  own  broad- 
minded  toleration.  In  his  Journal  of  May  18,  1788, 
he  makes  this  characteristic  entry  j 


PREFACE  xiii 

"I  preached  in  the  evening  on,  Now  abideth  faith, 
hope,  love;  these  three.  I  subjoined  a  short  account 
of  Methodism,  particularly  insisting  on  the  circum- 
stances,— There  is  no  other  religious  society  under  heaven 
which  requires  nothing  of  men  in  order  to  their  ad- 
mission into  it,  but  a  desire  to  save  their  souls.  Look 
all  around  you,  you  cannot  be  admitted  into  the  Church, 
or  society  of  the  Presbyterians,  Anabaptists,  Quakers, 
or  any  others,  unless  you  hold  the  same  opinions  with 
them,  and  adhere  to  the  same  mode  of  worship.  The 
Methodists  alone  do  not  insist  on  your  holding  this 
or  that  opinion;  but  they  think  and  let  think.  Neither 
do  they  impose  any  particular  mode  of  worship;  but 
you  may  continue  to  worship  in  your  former  manner, 
be  it  what  it  may.  Now,  I  do  not  know  any  other 
religious  society,  either  ancient  or  modern,  wherein  such 
liberty  of  conscience  is  now  allowed,  or  has  been  allowed, 
since  the  age  of  the  apostles.  Here  is  our  glorying;  and  a 
glorying  peculiar  to  us.    What  society  shares  it  with  us?" 

A  name  held  in  highest  veneration  in  Methodism  is 
that  of  Adam  Clarke.  His  Commentary  on  the  Bible 
was  considered  in  its  day  a  great  and  most  exceptional 
monument  of  biblical  learning.  It  represented  enormous 
toil  and  research.  Now,  nearly  one  hundred  years 
since  the  last  volume  was  written,  this  work  still  con- 
tinues to  have  a  steady  sale.  But  it  seems  a  fact  very 
little  known,  in  popular  thought  almost  undreamed 
of,  that  long  before  the  time  when  literary  criticism 
had  become  a  developed  science  Adam  Clarke  was  a 
pioneer  in  biblical  criticism.  He  may  perhaps  be  justly 
regarded  as  the  greatest  "higher  critic"  that  Methodism 
has  ever  produced. 


xiv  PREFACE 

It  was  from  the  mental  loins  of  broad,  tolerant,  and 
progressive  minds  like  Wesley  and  Clarke  that  the 
intellectual  life  of  early  Methodism  was  generated. 
Surely,  with  such  an  ancestry,  the  scholarship  of  modern 
Methodism  ought  to  be  under  no  suspicion  of  being  a 
laggard  in  critical  thought,  and  it  ought  to  be  under 
no  trammel  in  the  exercise  of  a  devout  freedom  in  any 
critical  pursuit  of  knowledge. 

Personally,  I  can  have  no  doubt  that  Methodism 
could  enter  upon  no  era  of  its  history  that  would  be 
more  unworthy  of  its  origin  and  mission,  that  would 
be  more  destructive  of  its  real  power,  that  would  invite 
a  greater  revulsion  against  itself  of  the  best  intellect 
of  the  times,  than  to  organize  itself  into  an  ecclesias- 
ticism  repressive  of,  not  to  say  menacing  to,  the  spirit 
of  freest  intellectual  investigation  on  the  part  of  its 
teaching  faculties,  its  ministry,  and  its  scholarly  laity. 

So  far  as  this  volume  is  concerned,  none  could  be 
more  impressed  with  its  fragmentariness  than  myself. 
There  are  many  themes  which  would  properly  come 
under  its  title  which  I  have  made  no  attempt  to  dis- 
cuss. Such  as  it  is,  however,  I  am  not  without  hope 
that  the  book  may  serve  a  useful  purpose.  It  is  written 
in  a  reverent  spirit,  with  a  desire  only  to  serve  the  truth. 
The  studies  out  of  which  it  has  grown  have  been  to  me 
a  source  of  great  illumination  and  inspiration.  The 
literature  traversed  for  its  preparation  is,  for  a  large 
part,  elsewhere  indicated.  In  the  final  revision  of  my 
manuscript  I  am  much  indebted  to  the  critical  sugges- 
tions of  my  friend  Dr.  R.  J.  Cooke,  official  book  editor 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  as  also  to  several 
other  scholars  of  eminence  among  us. 


PREFACE  xv 

The  book  itself  has  been  forged  out  of  intervals  which 
have  come  as  fragments  of  leisure  in  the  midst  of  exact- 
ing duties.  It  has  been  written  mostly  in  my  home 
library,  and  in  the  quiet  hours  of  the  early  night.  In 
its  preparation  there  has  not  been  the  high  advantage 
of  continuous  opportunity  for  the  task.  I  now  commit 
it  to  the  public.  If  I  may  know  that  it  renders  a  help- 
ful service  to  any  of  its  readers,  I  shall  be  most  happily 
rewarded  for  the  toil  inseparable  from  its  preparation. 

New  York,  February  i,  191 1. 


INTRODUCTION 

To  introduce  personally  to  his  readers  the  author  of 
the  following  work  would  be,  in  view  of  his  many  years 
of  varied  and  distinguished  service  in  the  Church  of 
God,  a  wholly  superfluous  performance.  He  needs  no 
introduction.  Nevertheless,  because  of  his  widely  ex- 
tended reputation  as  pastor,  preacher,  and  successful 
Church  official,  enjoying  the  love  and  confidence  of 
ministry  and  laity,  it  is  not  superfluous  to  set  clearly 
before  the  reader  the  need  and  purpose  of  the  thought- 
compelling  volume  which  this  discriminating  thinker 
puts  in  our  hands. 

On  one  occasion  in  the  United  States  Senate,  after  a 
rambling  debate,  in  which  the  main  question  was  lost 
sight  of,  Webster  suggested  that  as  a  captain  after  a 
storm  which  has  obscured  the  sky  for  many  days  first 
endeavors  to  find  out  where  he  is,  so  the  Senate  should 
endeavor  to  find  its  latitude  and  longitude  on  the  sub- 
ject before  it.  It  is  just  such  a  service  which  the  learned 
author  of  this  work  before  us  desires  to  render. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  criticism,  science,  and  philos- 
ophy, all  the  factors  which  enter  into  what  is  termed 
Modern  Thought,  have  created  much  confusion  in  the 
minds  of  many  earnest  and  sincere  believers  and  thinkers 
inside  and  outside  the  Church.  They  hardly  know 
where  they  are.  In  order  that  the  whole  situation  may 
be  clearly  apprehended  it  is  necessary  that  they  should 
see  the  past  and  the  present,  the  wide  difference  which 
separates  them;  the  character,  purpose,  and  results  of 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

modern  scholarship,  and  the  effect  of  the  whole  move- 
ment on  evangelical  faith  and  the  progress  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  among  men. 

To  perform  this  service  adequately  is  a  large  under- 
taking. Three  essentials  are  necessary  to  such  a  per- 
formance: accurate  knowledge,  a  judicial  mind,  and  a 
vital  experience  of  the  saving  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  revelation  of  God  presents  itself  to  every 
age,  as  it  does  to  the  individual,  according  to  the  capacity 
of  that  age  to  receive  it,  and  every  age,  therefore,  per- 
ceives the  truth  from  a  different  angle.  He  is  really  no 
scholar  at  all,  no  matter  what  his  technical  knowledge 
may  be,  who  thinks  wisdom  was  born  in  the  nineteenth 
century;  who  has  not  gathered  up  into  his  own  thought 
the  thinking  of  other  ages,  for  not  in  vain  have  earnest 
thinkers  through  the  centuries  served  in  the  temple  of 
the  Lord  and  inquired  of  him  there.  How  essential  it 
is  that  between  conflicting  results  of  critical  investigation 
one  should  possess  an  unbiased  mind,  free  as  possible 
from  the  distorting  influences  of  personal  equation,  will 
appeal  at  once  to  our  highest  reason.  And  yet,  after 
all,  it  is,  as  Neander  long  since  said,  the  heart  that 
makes  the  theologian.  It  is  essential  that  the  scholar 
should  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  criticism,  science, 
and  philosophy,  and  that  he  should  maintain  an  intel- 
lectual hospitality  to  new  data  from  every  source,  but 
above  all  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  he  should  know 
Christ  in  the  inner  man,  that  he  should  know  that  he 
has  passed  from  darkness  to  light  through  the  power 
of  Him  who  is  the  culmination  of  the  progressive  in- 
fallible revelation  of  God,  for  as  a  man  thinketh  in 
his  heart  so  is  he  and  of  like  character  will  be  the  product 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

of  his  thought.  That  the  author  of  this  volume  possesses 
these  requirements  will  be  conceded,  and  how  success- 
fully he  has  accomplished  his  task  the  following 
weighty  pages  abundantly  testify.  His  comprehensive 
resume1  of  the  intellectual  status  of  the  dark  periods  in 
the  history  of  civilization,  reminding  us  of  the  brilliant 
generalizations  of  Buckle,  his  clear  apprehension  of  the 
needs  of  the  present,  his  unwavering  faith  in  and  strong 
defense  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  Christian 
revelation  in  spite  of  all  that  negative  criticism  may 
have  to  say  against  them,  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible, 
the  essential  divinity  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  his  atonement 
for  the  race,  miracles,  the  necessity  of  the  new  birth, 
and  in  the  ultimate  victory  of  the  truth  of  God  mani- 
fested in  redeemed  humanity  through  the  power  of  a 
living  Christ  over  all  forms  of  sin  and  error,  will  commend 
the  work  to  thoughtful  readers  who  wish  to  know  their 
bearings  and  to  those  who  desire  to  see  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  competent  scholar  to  what  extent  the  doctrines 
dear  to  the  life  of  every  believer  are  affected  by  the 
results  of  biblical  criticism. 

In  thus  recommending  the  work  we  do  not,  of  course, 
indorse  as  the  teachings  of  the  Church  every  statement 
of  the  author,  nor  commit  ourselves  to  all  of  his  con- 
clusions, especially  those  relating  to  the  Old  Testament. 
Dr.  Mains  speaks  for  himself,  and  modestly  disclaims 
any  intention  of  speaking  for  the  Church  or  for  any 
institution.  He  simply  reports  the  findings  of  eminent 
Christian  scholars  and  pleads  for  tolerance  of  their 
views  till  they  are  found  to  be  erroneous.  With  the 
methods  of  biblical  criticism  we  may  heartily  agree, 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  we  must  therefore  blindly 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

accept  all  the  supposed  results.  Certainly  we  shall  not 
take  away  infallibility  from  the  Bible  and  bestow  it 
upon  the  critics.  The  history  of  biblical  criticism  only 
too  clearly  teaches  that  assured  results  often  change, 
and  it  is  no  reproach  to  any  Church  that  it  does  not 
revise  its  creed  every  time  a  biblical  critic  changes  his 
opinion.  But  it  is  also  true  that  no  Christian  teacher 
should  dread  either  the  methods  or  the  results  of  genuine 
criticism.  Biblical  criticism  is  not  the  enemy,  but  the 
friend,  of  truth.  It  sifts  the  essential  from  the  non- 
essential. The  Word  of  God  standeth  sure.  Dry  leaves 
and  withered  twigs  may  be  driven  by  the  wind,  but 
the  trees  of  the  Lord  which  are  full  of  sap,  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon  which  he  hath  planted,  these  will 
remain. 

It  only  remains  to  be  said  that  evangelical  scholarship, 
for  which  this  book  stands,  has  no  sympathy  or  alliance 
with  so-called  Modernism,  or  with  the  program  of  Modern- 
ism. Starting  from  textual  criticism  and  using  the 
religious-historical  method,  Modernism  may  be  used,  on 
the  theory  of  doctrinal  development  as  first  propounded 
by  Newman,  to  account  for  and  justify  the  doctrinal 
aberrations  of  the  Roman  Church,  but  it  is  utterly 
destructive  of  evangelical  faith.  Biblical  criticism  in 
the  hands  of  evangelical  scholars  has  no  more  affinity 
with  Abbe*  Loisy's  The  Gospel  in  the  Church  than  it 
has  with  the  theories  of  the  old  Tubingen  rationalists; 
with  Tyrrell's  Christianity  at  the  Cross  Roads  than  it 
has  with  Schmeidel's  Ultra-radicalism,  or  Harnack's 
Essence  of  Christianity,  which  is  not  Christianity  at  all 
but  an  amorphous  incoherency  between  Unitarianism 
and  Reformed  Judaism. 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

With  the  author,  we  can  only  hope  that  this  work, 
reverent  in  spirit,  beautiful  in  simplicity  of  style,  exact 
in  statement  of  thought,  and  pervaded  all  through 
with  the  aroma  of  a  living  faith  in  the  power  of  God's 
inspired  Word,  may  be  of  the  largest  possible  service. 

R.  J.  Cooke. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


Alas!  the  lofty  city!  and  alas] 

The  trebly  hundred  triumphs!  and  the  day 

When  Brutus  made  the  dagger's  edge  surpass 

The  conqueror's  sword  in  bearing  fame  away! 

Alas,  for  Tully's  voice,  and  Virgil's  lay, 

And  Livy's  pictured  page!  but  these  shall  be 

Her  resurrection ;  all  beside — decay. 

Alas  for  Earth,  for  never  shall  we  see 

That  brightness  in  her  eye  she  bore  when  Rome  was  free. 

— Byron. 

Nine  hundred  years  after  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire,  in  the 
reign  of  Pope  Martin  the  Fifth,  two  of  his  learned  servants,  Poggius 
and  a  friend,  viewing  the  ancient  ruins  from  the  Capitoline  Hill,  thus 
moralized :  "The  hill  of  the  Capitol,  on  which  we  sit,  was  formerly  the 
head  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  citadel  of  the  earth,  the  terror  of 
kings;  illustrated  by  the  footsteps  of  so  many  triumphs,  enriched  with 
the  spoils  and  tributes  of  so  many  nations.  This  spectacle  of  the 
world,  how  is  it  fallen!  how  changed!  how  defaced!  The  path  of  vic- 
tory is  obliterated  by  vines,  and  the  benches  of  the  senators  are  con- 
cealed by  a  dunghill.  Cast  your  eyes  on  the  Palatine  Hill,  and  seek 
among  the  shapeless  and  enormous  fragments  the  marble  theater, 
the  obelisks,  the  colossal  statues,  the  porticoes  of  Nero's  palace; 
survey  the  other  hills  of  the  city,  the  vacant  space  is  interrupted  only 
by  ruins  and  gardens.  The  forum  of  the  Roman  people,  where  they 
assembled  to  enact  their  laws  and  elect  their  magistrates,  is  now 
inclosed  for  the  cultivation  of  potherbs,  or  thrown  open  for  the  recep- 
tion of  swine  and  buffaloes.  The  public  and  private  edifices,  that 
were  founded  for  eternity,  lie  prostrate,  naked,  and  broken,  like  the 
limbs  of  a  mighty  giant;  and  the  ruin  is  the  more  visible,  from  the 
stupendous  relics  that  have  survived  the  injuries  of  time  and  fortune." 
— Gibbon. 

the  middle  ages 

History  records  no  such  triumph  of  intellect  over  brute-force  as 
that  which,  in  an  age  of  turmoil  and  battle,  was  wrested  from  the 
fierce  warriors  of  the  time  by  priests  who  had  no  material  force  at 
their  command,  and  whose  power  was  based  alone  on  the  souls  and 
consciences  of  men.  Over  soul  and  conscience  their  empire  was 
complete.  No  Christian  could  hope  for  salvation  who  was  not  in  all 
things  an  obedient  son  of  the  Church,  and  who  was  not  ready  to  take 
up  arms  in  its  defense;  and,  in  a  time  when  faith  was  a  determining 
factor  of  conduct,  this  belief  created  a  spiritual  despotism  which 
placed  all  things  within  reach  of  him  who  could  wield  it. — Lea, 
History  of  the  Inquisition. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

The  term  "Modern  Thought"  implies  a  distinctive 
age  or  era  in  which  the  contents  of  this  term  must  have 
had  their  development,  ft  is  of  interest  to  inquire 
what  kind  of  an  age  it  was  which  preceded  that  to  which 
we  ascribe  the  birth  of  modern  thought.  It  has  long 
been  the  custom  of  the  historian  to  divide  the  later 
centuries  into  what  he  is  pleased  to  name  the  "  mediaeval" 
and  "modern"  periods.  The  boundaries  which  mark 
these  periods  may  not  always  be  easily  defined,  but 
they  as  certainly  exist  as  do  the  bounds  between  night 
and  morning. 

At  some  time  in  the  fifth  of  the  Christian  centuries 
there  culminated  one  of  the  most  pregnant  events  in 
human  history — the  fall  and  dissolution  of  the  Roman 
empire.  This  empire,  the  most  potent  ever  erected  by 
human  skill;  which  had  annexed  to  its  scepter  the  terri- 
tories of  the  Western  World,  extending  from  the  Eu- 
phrates to  the  Atlantic,  and  from  the  far  North  to  the 
Desert  of  Sahara;  an  empire  whose  capital  on  the  Tiber 
was  known  as  the  "Eternal  City,"  which  was  itself 
immensely  enriched  and  beautified  by  spoils  of  war 
gathered  from  all  climes,  and  from  whose  throne  and 
senate  were  issued  the  resistless  decrees  which  governed 
the  world;  an  empire  whose  statesmanship  evidenced 
supreme  genius  for  law  and  order,  and  whose  brain 
gave  birth  to  systems  of  jurisprudence  which  have 
taken   a   secure   place   in   the   codes   of   all   subsequent 

3 


4  MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

civilizations;  an  empire  whose  armies  were  garrisoned 
in  all  cities  and  whose  fleets  covered  the  seas;  an  empire 
in  which  architecture  and  art,  poetry,  philosophy,  and 
oratory  so  flourished  as  to  secure  for  it  for  all  time  to 
come  an  imperishable  and  resplendent  renown  as  the 
creator  and  promoter  of  highest  intellectual  values — 
this  empire,  so  vast,  so  mighty,  so  laboriously  built 
and  buttressed  by  the  warrior,  the  statesman,  and  the 
jurist,  fell  at  last  under  the  stroke  of  barbarian  hordes 
which  had  swarmed  from  the  wildernesses  of  the  North; 
went  as  helplessly  as  a  disabled  ship  to  its  ruin  or  as 
might  a  frail  framework  built  upon  the  sands  before 
the  smiting  wrath  of  an  ocean  tempest. 

The  fall  of  Rome,  and  that  for  which  it  stood,  was 
nothing  less  than  a  world-tragedy.  Whatever  might 
ultimately  ensue,  the  whole  of  Western  civilization  was 
for  the  present,  and  for  centuries  to  come,  as  by  a  fatal 
decree  of  Providence,  smitten  into  the  dust.  The  cen- 
tral, the  organizing  and  directing  seat  of  the  world's 
government  had  perished,  and  there  was  no  power  to 
take  its  place.  The  Church  had  learned  largely  the 
secret  of  Roman  authority,  and,  while  the  territory 
of  Europe  was  to  be  divided  into  petty  and  rival  king- 
doms, and  was  to  fall  universally  under  the  vassalage 
of  feudalism,  she  was  the  only  successor  of  Rome  as 
asserting  and  securing  for  herself  a  central  throne  of 
authority  and  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  sovereignty 
over  the  people.  In  this  function  the  Church  was  to 
render  in  those  turbulent  ages,  and  for  all  the  future, 
a  service  of  unmeasured  beneficence. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  authority  and  the  moral 
inspirations  of  the  Church  in  this  period,  it  is  difficult, 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  5 

impossible,  to  imagine  what  might  have  been  the  fate 
of  Europe,  and,  indeed,  of  mankind.  The  Church,  as 
we  too  well  know,  was  widely  far  from  ideal.  It  was 
itself  so  paganized,  so  mercenary,  so  corrupt,  that  with 
its  strongest  hold  upon  Europe  it  was  not  able  to  rescue 
the  centuries  which  were  to  follow  from  passing  into 
history  as  the  "Dark  Ages."  The  Church,  even  though 
she  furnished  the  central  bond  of  authority  and  the 
chief  moral  shepherding  of  the  people,  was  to  give  to 
Europe  a  control  which  was  more  barbaric  than  civilized, 
more  pagan  than  Christian. 

The  Church  reared  its  enormous  power  over  the 
people  on  the  basis  of  a  well-nigh  universal  credulity 
which  unquestioningly  accepted  its  teachings,  its  author- 
ity, and  its  penalties  as  of  divine  sanction.  Its  supreme 
domination  in  civil  affairs  was  a  matter  of  slow  growth. 
In  its  far-reaching  organization  and  unity  it  had  great 
advantage.  On  the  side  of  the  state,  Europe  was  broken 
up  into  small  principalities  between  which  there  inhered 
little  of  unity  and  much  of  rivalry.  Diplomatically  the 
papal  chair  for  the  strengthening  of  its  own  position 
often  formed  alliances  with  the  more  powerful  of  the 
secular  rulers,  and  not  infrequently  such  alliances  resulted 
in  the  subordination  of  the  pope  to  temporal  authority. 
In  the  ninth  century  Charles  the  Great  placed  one  pope 
on  trial,  and  in  the  tenth  century  Otho  the  Great  de- 
posed two  popes,  and  in  their  stead  placed  his  own 
candidates  upon  the  papal  throne.  The  struggle  for 
supremacy  between  pope  and  temporal  ruler  went  on 
with  varying  fortunes  until  1073,  when  Hildebrand,  as 
Gregory  VII,  was  consecrated  pope.  He  was  the  dom- 
inant man  of  the  age.     His  ideal  was  that  the  Church 


6  MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

should  be  absolutely  free  from  subjection  to  secular 
power.  The  pope  as  the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  was 
God's  first  representative  on  earth,  and  as  such  should 
be  absolute  sovereign  of  the  Church  and  the  supreme 
temporal  ruler  of  the  world.  To  the  support  of  this 
ideal  he  brought  great  genius  and  strength.  He  intro- 
duced drastic  reforms  against  simony  and  the  marriage 
of  the  clergy.  He  forced  rulers  far  and  near  to  swear 
to  him  their  supreme  allegiance.  He  was  the  first 
pope  to  depose  a  king.  He  not  only  formally  deposed 
Henry  IV,  the  powerful  king  of  Germany,  but  as  a 
condition  of  restitution  to  his  throne,  compelled  him 
to  submit  to  the  most  humiliating  stipulations.  The 
king,  divested  of  every  mark  of  royalty,  garbed  in  the 
sackcloth  of  a  penitent,  and  barefooted,  stood  in  mid- 
winter in  the  outer  court  of  the  castle  of  Canossa,  and 
thus  made  formal  submission. 

Henry's  penitence,  however,  was  more  diplomatic  than 
real.  While  in  the  very  guise  of  submission,  he  was 
in  his  heart  plotting  vengeance.  Through  civil  war  in 
Germany  he  was  soon  able  to  repossess  himself  of  his 
throne.  Later,  he  laid  siege  to  Rome,  which  ended 
in  his  receiving  the  imperial  crown.  Gregory  VII  fled 
from  the  city,  only  shortly  after  to  die  in  exile.  He 
was,  nevertheless,  one  of  the  supreme  minds  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Endowed  with  indomitable  will,  with 
untiring  energy,  imperious  in  temper,  fearless  in  emer- 
gency, magnetic  in  influence,  instinctively  a  leader,  he 
was  really  the  creator  of  that  political  Papacy  which 
was  afterward  to  rule  the  world. 

The  dream  of  Hildebrand  came  to  its  fulfillment 
under  the  reign  of  Innocent  III,  who  ascended  the  papal 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  7 

chair  near  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century.  Nobly 
born,  possessing  every  advantage  of  wealth,  and  receiv- 
ing the  highest  education  of  his  time,  he  was  made 
pope  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven.  He  carried  to  his 
place  abilities  of  an  imperial  order.  The  conditions 
throughout  Europe  were  ripe  for  the  advent  of  a  great 
papal  leader.  The  civil  governments  were  not  strongly 
ruled,  and  the  cry  and  desire  of  the  people  were  toward 
the  pope.  The  Crusades,  which  had  now  been  in  progress 
for  a  century,  had  resulted  in  vast  enrichment  to  the 
Church,  had  greatly  enhanced  the  power  of  the  pope, 
and  had  fired  the  masses  with  "most  intense  religious 
enthusiasm. 

Innocent  III,  in  the  spirit  of  a  master  statesman, 
was  prompt  to  take  advantage  of  all  conditions.  He 
first  made  himself  supreme  lord  of  Church  and  state 
throughout  Italy.  He  appointed  magistrates  and  judges, 
took  charge  of  the  courts,  and  personally  dictated  the 
conditions  of  the  civil  as  well  as  of  the  ecclesiastical 
government.  He  gained  for  himself  recognized  leader- 
ship over  the  German  empire,  and  reduced  the  kings 
of  France,  Spain,  and  even  of  England  to  a  condition 
of  feudal  vassalage  to  the  papal  throne.  By  means  of 
the  Crusades  he  made  his  authority  felt  over  the  Greek 
Church,  and  was  able  himself  to  appoint  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  the  highest  seat  of  authority  in  that 
Church,  by  his  own  dictation. 

Innocent  III  died  in  the  midst  of  his  ambitious  plans, 
but  he  bequeathed  to  his  successors  a  Papacy  in  undis- 
puted control  of  Europe.  He  left  behind  him  a  code 
of  elaborate  and  coherent  principles  of  sacerdotal  govern- 
ment which  dominated  in  both  Church  and  state.     Not 


8  MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

only  the  clergy  universally  accepted  the  will  of  the 
pope  as  a  supreme  law  of  action  and  of  thought,  but 
Christian  princes  throughout  the  Western  world  acknowl- 
edged the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  as  having  rightful 
lordship  over  them  all. 

It  is  well  to  note  specifically  some  of  the  leading 
characteristics  of  this  papal-governed  world.  In  the 
hands  of  the  pope,  as  the  absolute  head  of  the  hierarchy 
and  of  civil  governments,  were  lodged  fearful  powers. 
In  the  Church  he  was  the  supreme  defender  of  the  faith 
and  of  the  clergy,  the  censor  of  morals,  the  source  and 
the  final  appeal  in  all  matters  of  justice.  He  could 
convene  or  disperse  councils  at  will,  and  could  confirm 
or  abrogate  their  decrees  according  to  his  own  decision. 
In  civil  matters  he  could  issue  dispensations  modifying 
or  setting  aside  human  laws. 

The  pope  was  not  only  the  supreme  judge  of  the 
faith,  but  he  had  unlimited  authority  to  employ  agencies 
for  the  detection,  the  correction,  and  the  extirpation 
of  heresy.  And  the  means  employed  for  this  purpose 
are  the  standing  Inferno  of  history.  The  Inquisition 
and  its  abuses  are  the  infamy  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
nations  of  Europe  were  policed  with  spiritual  detectives, 
heresy  hunters,  who  finally,  for  reasons  most  trivial 
and  often  most  vilely  mercenary,  were  only  too  ready 
to  accuse  even  the  innocent  of  holding  views  that  were 
treasonable  against  the  spiritual  government.  Under 
the  high  pretext  of  keeping  the  Church  pure,  the  in- 
quisitor laid  far  greater  emphasis  upon  dogma  than  upon 
character.  One  might  be  morally  dissolute  and  pass 
unchallenged;  but  if  he  were  suspected  of  being  a  free- 
thinker, or  of  holding  unsound  views,  he  was  at  once 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  9 

a  fit  subject  for  the  rack  or  for  the  stake.  Thus,  under 
the  fearful  enginery  of  the  Church,  the  spirit  of  free 
investigation  was  everywhere  terrorized  and  strangled. 
It  was  a  fatal  sin  for  one  to  hold  independent  opinions 
of  his  own.  In  the  infliction  of  penalty  the  Church 
employed  the  arm  of  secular  power;  it  being  itself  too 
holy  to  stain  its  own  hands  with  blood,  found  it  most 
convenient  to  employ  as  its  jailer  and  its  executioner 
its  servile  instrument,  the  civil  government. 

The  real  terror  of  the  Inquisition  as  wielded  is  indescrib- 
able. Its  agents  became  at  once  the  accusers  and 
the  judges  of  its  victims.  It  instituted  crusades  of 
extermination  against  the  Albigenses  and  the  Waldenses. 
It  planted  the  Lowlands  with  stakes  and  deluged  them 
with  blood.  It  was  its  spirit  which  in  France  finally 
instigated  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew.  In  Spain, 
under  the  single  administration  of  Torquemada,  nearly 
nine  thousand  people  were  condemned  to  the  flames, 
six  thousand  five  hundred  were  burned  in  effigy,  and 
more  than  ninety  thousand  were  subjected  to  various 
penalties.  This  relentless  cruelty  against  human  life 
and  reason  spread  itself  as  far  north  as  Scandinavia  and 
the  British  Isles,  and  its  scourge  overran  the  lands  of 
Germany  and  Italy.  It  became  the  instrument  of  in- 
satiate greed,  serving  vastly  to  enrich  the  Church. 
Its  persecutions  enforced  the  migration  of  the  rich 
Jews  and  Moslems  from  Spain,  their  properties  being 
confiscated  as  revenues  to  the  papal  treasury,  thus 
depopulating  whole  towns  and  provinces  and  putting 
a  blight  upon  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  nation. 
The  Inquisition  spared  nobody.  Like  a  creeping  plague 
it  became  a  terror  alike  to  princes  and  to  the  most  power- 


io         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

ful  dignitaries  of  the  Church.  It  assassinated  the 
intellectual  life  of  Europe.  It  condemned  Roger  Bacon 
as  a  magician  and  sent  him  to  prison;  it  arrested  Galileo 
and  forced  his  recantation  of  the  truth;  it  murdered 
Giordano  Bruno,  and  burned  Huss  and  Wycliffe  at 
the  stake. 

The  Inquisition  established  an  "Index  Expurgatorius" 
against  literature.  It  was  as  careful  to  destroy  heretical 
books  as  it  was  to  burn  their  authors.  It  early  dis- 
covered that  the  Bible  was  a  dangerous  book  to  be 
in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  its  circulation  was  for- 
bidden. As  late  as  1558  Philip  II  denounced  the  penalty 
of  death  upon  any  of  his  subjects  who  should  be  found 
even  to  possess  a  book  forbidden  by  the  Inquisition. 

The  power  of  excommunication  was  another  fearful 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  pope.  He  could  absolutely 
shut  the  doors  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  any 
offending  soul.  The  man  excommunicated  was  to  be 
regarded  as  a  social  and  moral  outlaw,  one  without 
religious  or  civil  rights,  whose  property  might  be  con- 
fiscated; and  perdition  everlasting  was  his  certain  doom 
unless  through  his  abject  repentance  the  Church  should 
mercifully  restore  him  to  favor.  The  authority  to 
excommunicate  was  used  by  the  bishop  within  his 
diocese  as  well  as  by  the  pope  for  the  Church  at  large. 

The  interdict  was  a  decree  issued  against  a  given 
territory,  whether  a  city  or  an  entire  kingdom,  for  the 
purpose  of  forcing  that  territory  or  its  ruler  to  sub- 
mission. The  interdict  during  its  force  practically  put 
a  stop  to  the  functions  of  civil  government,  and  the  super- 
stitious were  made  to  feel  that  the  very  province  which 
they  inhabited  was  under  the  blight  of  a  divine  curse. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  n 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  tremendous  power  of 
excommunication  and  of  the  interdict  were  often  most 
absurdly  and  viciously  exercised.  It  is  a  matter  of 
record  that  letters  conferring  the  power  of  excommuni- 
cation were  sold  for  money,  and  the  authority  itself 
was  often  used  for  humiliating  a  rival  or  for  purposes 
of  extortion. 

The  papal  hierarchy  was,  in  general,  composed  of 
cardinals,  primates,  bishops,  and  priests.  The  cardinals 
ranked  next  to  the  pope,  and  were  supposed  to  be  his 
direct  advisers.  The  primates  were  in  charge  of  what 
might  be  called  the  court  or  national  churches.  It 
was  their  function  to  preside  over  state  councils  of  the 
Church,  over  the  higher  ecclesiastical  courts,  to  con- 
firm the  election  of  bishops  and  archbishops  within  their 
territory,  to  perform  the  coronation  of  kings  and  queens, 
and,  in  general,  as  the  pope's  representatives,  to  direct 
the  interests  of  the  Church  within  their  respective  states. 
The  archbishops  presided  over  territories  each  of  which 
included  several  bishops.  They  superintended  the  election 
and  consecration  of  bishops,  called  and  presided  over 
synods,  heard  appeals  from  the  lower  episcopal  courts, 
and  exercised  a  general  supervision  of  the  Church  within 
their  respective  districts. 

The  bishop  was  simply  a  lesser  pope  within  his  diocese, 
exercising  the  powers  of  a  sovereign  over  priests  and 
people.  While  supervising  the  churches  of  his  diocese, 
he  had  his  own  distinct  church,  the  cathedral,  which 
was  usually  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  edifice  in 
the  diocese.  He  was  regarded  as  a  direct  successor 
of  the  apostles,  and  his  authority  applied  to  nearly  all 
questions  of  interest  to  the  community.     By  virtue  of 


12        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

landed  grants  placed  at  the  disposal  of  his  office  he 
was  vested  with  all  the  rights  of  a  feudal  lord,  and  thus 
he  became  a  potent  factor  in  secular  as  well  as  in 
ecclesiastical  affairs. 

No  authority  in  the  Church,  however,  from  the  pope 
down  to  the  last  bishop,  so  far  as  direct  power  over 
the  people  was  concerned,  wielded  such  influence  as 
the  priest  within  the  circle  of  his  parish.  He  alone 
came  in  direct  contact  with  the  masses.  He  performed 
all  the  rites  and  duties  of  the  parish  minister,  absolving, 
baptizing,  marrying,  and  burying  the  people.  The  sac- 
raments, which  were  the  instruments  of  salvation,  he 
could  withhold  or  administer  at  his  own  option;  thus 
he  held  in  his  hand  the  destiny  of  the  very  souls  of 
men.  Presiding  over  the  auricular  confession,  he  was 
the  recipient  of  the  most  secret  confidences  of  his  parish- 
ioners, deciding  their  very  consciences  and  conduct, 
the  personal  dispenser  of  their  eternal  salvation.  Sep- 
arated by  the  sacred  and  mysterious  rites  and  authority 
of  ordination,  living  the  life  of  a  celibate  with  no  bride 
save  the  Church,  to  which  he  gave  himself  in  supreme 
devotion,  he  moved  among  the  people  as  a  shepherd 
sent  from  God,  at  once  their  protector  and  guide,  yet 
at  the  same  time  carrying  at  his  girdle  the  keys  by 
which  he  might  shut  against  them  the  very  gates  of 
heaven.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  relation  that 
would  appeal  more  potently  to  the  hopes  and  fears, 
to  the  interests  and  motives  of  the  human  soul  than 
that  of  the  parish  priest  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  held 
a  position  which  even  princes  might  envy.  He  was  as 
one  who  stood  in  the  very  place  of  God. 

If  now  we   remind   ourselves   that   all   ranks   of  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  13 

hierarchy,  from  the  pope  to  the  parish  priest,  were  not 
only  invested  with  the  sanctions  of  divine  authority, 
but  had  absolutely  at  command  in  their  respective 
spheres  the  laws,  the  courts,  the  agencies  and  instru- 
ments of  penalty  against  the  transgressor,  that  the 
secular  arm  of  the  state  was  always  ready  to  wield 
the  sword  in  obedience  to  the  demand  of  the  Church, 
then  we  are  prepared  to  realize  in  some  vivid  measure 
how  absolute  was  the  despotism,  and  how  terrible  for 
good  or  evil  was  the  rule  of  the  Church  over  the  human 
mind. 

These  were  ages  of  barbaric  habits  and  cruel  ideals. 
The  Church  itself  was  dominated  by  a  spirit  of  despotic 
intolerance.  The  great  masses  of  the  people  were  densely 
ignorant.  The  priesthood  in  all  ranks  was  in  great 
numbers  immoral,  mercenary,  unscrupulous,  ravening 
wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,  wholly  unfit  in  personal 
character  to  be  ministers  and  leaders  in  holy  things. 
Still,  it  is  impossible  to  overstate  the  values  of  the 
solidarity  and  the  conceded  authority  of  the  Church 
rule  over  those  turbulent  ages.  The  territory  of  the 
Roman  empire,  in  which  the  reign  of  law  was  felt  and 
respected  to  its  uttermost  bounds,  was  broken  into 
rival  and  petty  sections  in  which  the  spirit  of  the 
freebooter  was  largely  abroad;  and  so  far  as  civil  rule 
was  concerned,  if  this  had  been  all,  whole  lands  might 
have  been  swallowed  up  in  the  confusion  and  ruin  of 
anarchy.  But  in  such  an  age  as  this  the  Church,  lifting 
her  scepter  above  all  civil  powers,  and  girt  with  the 
authority  of  omnipotence,  impressing  kings  and  subjects 
alike  that  she  was  the  dispenser  of  both  the  vengeance 
and  mercy  of  heaven,  put  a  sway  over  the  barbarous 


i4         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

and  superstitious  masses  which  was  at  once  both  terri- 
ble and  beneficent. 

The  Church  as  a  theocratic  organism  gathered  under 
her  own  scepter  the  territories  coextensive  with  those 
of  the  former  empire,  and  throughout  all  the  diversified 
peoples  of  Europe  she  inspired  and  maintained  a  fear 
of  her  authority  such  as  was  never  exceeded  by  the 
awe  of  the  empire  in  the  days  of  its  most  imperial  sway. 

It  is  to  be  said  to  the  credit  of  this  Church,  bad  as 
it  was,  that,  through  long  ages  otherwise  dark  and 
barbarous,  she  made  herself  beneficently  felt  as  the 
fountain  of  the  best  law,  order,  and  justice ;  the  expounder 
of  highest  civil  rights  and  best  social  virtues ;  the  most 
perfect  promoter  of  domestic  purity  and  of  family 
piety;  the  greatest  inspirer  of  charitable  deeds  known 
to  that  benighted  world.  Poor  in  general  as  were  her 
spiritual  life  and  moral  example,  there  was  no  period 
in  which  she  did  not  develop  eminent  examples  of  saint- 
hood, and,  however  dark  the  age,  in  some  of  her  excep- 
tional cloisters,  at  least,  the  lamp  of  human  learning 
was  never  permitted  to  grow  dim. 

In  this  preliminary  chapter  I  have  given  much  space 
to  consideration  of  the  Church.  There  can  be  no  intel- 
ligent view  of  the  Middle  Ages,  especially  of  the  later 
period,  without  an  understanding  of  the  relations  of 
the  Church  to  the  entire  situation.  It  should  not  be 
assumed  that  even  in  these  later  times  the  authority 
of  the  Church  went  everywhere  unchallenged.  The 
drastic  and  widespread  measures  adopted  for  the  extir- 
pation of  heresy,  for  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of 
thought,  themselves  witness  eloquently  to  a  wide  and 
persistent  protest  which  uttered  itself  against  the  intol- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  15 

erance  of  her  rule.  Even  then  there  was  a  growing 
sense  of  individuality.  Very  many  with  awakening 
intellects  were  in  an  attitude  of  skepticism,  of  irreverence 
and  mental  independence  toward  the  claims  of  the  Papacy. 

The  standards  of  education  as  compared  with  those 
of  the  present  day  were  at  the  best  relatively  poor  and 
fruitless.  The  masses  grossly  illiterate,  their  religious 
teachers  for  the  most  part  intellectual  bigots,  there 
was,  and  could  be,  no  such  fact  as  a  general  education 
among  the  people.  The  theological  training  of  the 
priest  did  not  necessarily  require  more  than  that  he 
should  be  able  to  construe  his  breviary,  read  a  little 
Latin,  and  be  able  to  say  mass.  The  arts  and  the 
sciences,  such  as  they  were,  had  either  fallen  into  des- 
uetude or  were  little  cultivated.  Yet  it  remained  true 
that  the  universities  scattered  over  Europe  furnished 
centers  in  which  was  kept  alive  the  spirit  of  scholarly 
investigation.  Their  scribes  were  making  copies  of,  and 
were  translating  into  their  own  thought,  the  choicest 
classical  productions  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  ages. 
And  there  was  in  this,  and  in  the  kindred  pursuits  of 
these  scholars,  a  large  measure  of  intellectual  emancipa- 
tion which  not  only  voiced  itself  in  these  centers  of 
learning,  but  which  like  a  leaven  was  destined  in  time 
to  pervade  widely  the  thought  of  the  people.  In  these 
universities  there  was  cultivated  that  spirit  of  research 
and  of  mental  independence  which  was  the  sure  fore- 
tokening of  a  new  era  of  intellectual  enlightenment  and 
spiritual  liberty  for  mankind. 

In  material  conditions,  while  the  Church  was  enor- 
mously rich,  literally  owning  so  much  of  Europe  as  to 
make  her  the   mightiest   secular  power  in   the   world, 


1 6         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

and  while  her  privileged  sons  vied  with  the  most  power- 
ful princes  in  luxurious  living,  the  conditions  which 
enveloped  the  people  were  crude  and  barbarous.  The 
splendid  military  roads  and  public  improvements  of  the 
empire  had  fallen  into  disuse.  In  these  ages  there  were 
no  public  libraries,  no  enlightening  press,  no  vehicles 
of  rapid  intelligence  as  between  peoples.  The  masses 
were  treated  as  vassals;  their  highest  duty  was  that 
of  unquestioning  submission  to  the  Church  and  of 
supreme  obedience  to  their  feudal  masters.  The  world 
of  that  day,  with  the  most  ameliorating  light  which 
we  may  throw  upon  it,  was  indeed  dark,  cruel,  barbaric. 
Yet  it  was  from  the  background  of  such  a  world  as 
this  that  the  new  and  modern  age — an  age  whose  intel- 
lectual light  is  as  the  noonday,  and  whose  spiritual 
liberty  is  that  of  the  sons  of  God — was  to  emerge. 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


17 


The  metaphor  of  Renaissance  may  signify  the  entrance  of  the 
European  nations  upon  a  fresh  stage  of  vital  energy  in  general,  imply- 
ing a  fuller  consciousness  and  a  freer  exercise  of  faculties  than  had 
belonged  to  the  mediaeval  period.  .  .  .  The  Revival  of  Learning  must 
be  regarded  as  a  function  of  that  vital  energy,  an  organ  of  that  mental 
evolution,  which  brought  the  modern  world,  with  its  new  conceptions 
of  philosophy  and  religion,  its  reawakened  arts  and  sciences,  its  firmer 
grasp  on  the  realities  of  human  nature  and  the  world,  its  manifold 
inventions  and  discoveries,  its  altered  political  systems,  its  expansive 
and  progressive  forces,  into  being.  ...  It  is,  therefore,  obvious  that 
some  term,  wider  than  Revival  of  Learning,  descriptive  of  the  change 
which  began  to  pass  over  Europe  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  has  to  be  adopted.  That  of  Renaissance,  Renascimento,  or 
Renascence,  is  sufficient  for  the  purpose,  though  we  have  to  guard 
against  the  tyranny  of  what  is,  after  all,  a  metaphor.  We  must  not 
suffer  it  to  lead  us  into  rhetoric  about  the  deadness  and  darkness  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  or  hamper  our  inquiry  with  preconceived  assump- 
tions that  the  rebirth  in  question  was  in  any  true  sense  a  return  to 
the  irrecoverable  pagan  past.  Nor  must  we  imagine  that  there  was 
any  abrupt  break  with  the  Middle  Ages.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Renaissance  was  rather  the  last  stage  of  the  Middle  Ages,  emerging 
from  ecclesiastical  and  feudal  despotism,  developing  what  was  original 
in  mediaeval  ideas  by  the  light  of  classic  arts  and  letters,  holding  in 
itself  the  promise  of  the  Modern  World.  It  was,  therefore,  a  period 
and  a  process  of  transition,  fusion,  preparation,  tentative  endeavor. 
And  just  at  this  point  the  real  importance  of  the  Revival  of  Learning 
may  be  indicated.  That  rediscovery  of  the  classic  past  restored  the 
confidence  in  their  own  faculties  to  men  striving  after  spiritual  freedom ; 
revealed  the  continuity  of  history  and  the  identity  of  human  nature  in 
spite  of  diverse  creeds  and  different  customs;  held  up  for  emulation 
master  works  of  literature,  philosophy,  and  art;  provoked  inquiry; 
encouraged  criticism;  shattered  the  narrow  mental  barriers  imposed 
by  mediaeval  orthodoxy. — J.  A.  Symonds. 


18 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  RENAISSANCE 

The  term  "Renaissance"  means  literally  a  new  birth. 
It  has  come  to  be  historically  used  as  designating  the 
period  or  processes  through  which  the  modern  order 
was  evolved  from  conditions  mediaeval.  It  has  been 
common  to  make  it  a  synonym  for  that  great  intellectual 
movement  which  characterized  the  morning  of  modern 
history,  namely,  the  revival  throughout  Europe  of 
classical  learning.  It  should  include  all  this ;  but  strictly 
the  term,  if  it  shall  be  used  to  cover  the  period  and 
movements  through  which  modern  history  had  its  birth, 
must  be  made  to  mean  much  more  than  simply  a  revival 
of  ancient  learning,  however  significant  such  a  revival  in 
itself.  It  must  be  so  enlarged  as  to  cover  the  birth 
of  entirely  new  conceptions  of  civilization,  of  new 
ideas  of  both  Church  and  state,  of  a  newly  awakened 
sense  of  man's  individual  worth,  of  the  growing  respect 
which  the  individual  came  to  entertain  as  to  the  validity 
of  his  own  intellectual  processes,  and,  in  matters  of 
conduct,  of  his  privilege  to  obey  his  own  conscience 
rather  than  submit  himself  unthinkingly  to  the  demands 
of  a  theological  despotism. 

The  Renaissance  meant  the  advent  of  radically  new 
ideas  concerning  both  the  government  and  the  individual, 
ideas  which  to  the  mediaeval  mind  would  have  seemed 
treasonable  as  against  a  divine  order.  In  government 
the  dominant  thought  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  that  of 
a  "Holy  Roman  Empire"  under  the  sway  of  an  indivisible 

19 


2o        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Church.  Under  the  newborn  order  the  institutions  of 
feudalism  were  either  to  become  extinct,  or  were  to 
become  remodeled  and  absorbed  into  the  functions  of 
a  larger  statehood.  It  was  the  beginning  of  an  era 
which  was  to  witness  for  Western  civilizations  the 
establishment  of  broad  and  stable  governments  which 
should  be  ministered  largely  in  independence  of  ecclesi- 
astical domination. 

So  far  as  the  individual  was  concerned,  in  the  most 
vital  things  of  life  and  destiny  he  had  no  primary  right 
to  either  independence  of  thought  or  of  conscience. 
An  overshadowing  and  inquisitorial  ecclesiasticism  had 
so  far  assumed  the  functions  of  both  as  to  make  the 
individual  a  mere  automaton  in  its  hands.  In  the 
period  of  the  Renaissance  a  new  spirit  was  born  under 
whose  touch  the  mediaeval  Church  was  shorn  forever 
of  its  absolute  despotism  over  human  thought,  and 
under  the  inspirations  of  which  the  individual  was  to 
awaken  to  a  sense  of  his  independent  values  and  to 
his  sovereign  right  freely  to  exercise  his  own  reason 
and  conscience. 

The  period  was  not  only  characterized  by  a  wide 
revival  of  classical  learning,  by  the  birth  of  new  and 
great  ideas  concerning  the  functions  of  government  and 
the  intellectual  and  moral  rights  of  man;  but  it  was  also 
signalized  in  a  marvelous  way  by  new  discoveries  and 
inventions  which  were  to  prove  mighty  factors  in  giving  a 
new  direction  to  history  and  a  new  character  to  civilization. 

It  will  be  profitable  briefly  to  indicate  and  review 
some  of  the  distinctive  features  of  this  era  of  transition. 
In  speaking  of  the  revival  of  learning  as  a  chief  feature 
of  the  Renaissance,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 


THE  RENAISSANCE  21 

rise  of  this  movement  was  by  no  means  simultaneous 
in  all  the  lands  which  it  finally  affected.  The  Italian 
soil,  as  if  made  vernal  by  its  southern  sun,  was  the  first 
on  which  enthusiasm  for  the  new  learning  was  to  become 
a  popular  fashion.  The  Italian  was  the  lineal  descendant 
of  the  ancient  Roman,  the  Roman  who  was  at  once 
the  inheritor  of  Grecian  culture  and  of  an  age  which 
was  both  classical  and  golden  in  his  own  land.  The 
Italian  mind  was  precocious,  and  it  seems  but  natural 
that  its  susceptibilities  should  be  first  to  respond  to  the 
newly  awakened  sense  of  intellectual  freedom. 

The  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turk  in  1453 
resulted  in  the  migration  of  many  Grecian  scholars 
to  the  cities  of  Western  Europe.  This  fact  contributed 
greatly  to  the  attainment  of  Grecian  scholarship,  and 
its  pursuit  was  eagerly  coupled  with  that  of  the  Latin 
classics  by  Italian  students.  The  desire  for  classical 
learning  was  pervasive.  The  rediscovery  and  new-found 
possession  of  the  exhaustless  treasures  of  ancient  thought 
awakened  a  new  sense  of  human  values.  Ages  that 
were  called  pagan,  and  which  were  utter  strangers  to 
that  kind  of  ecclesiastical  censorship  which  for  centuries 
had  held  Europe  in  its  thrall,  were  newly  opened  to 
view,  and  they  were  found  to  be  vocal  with  the  wisdom 
and  song  of  genius,  rich  in  products  of  a  matchless 
art.  The  ancient  learning  thus  reproduced  did  not 
carry  the  mind  much  away  from  the  life  of  earth;  its 
rhapsodies  were  not  inspired  by  monkish  visions  of 
some  unknown  and  inaccessible  heaven.  It  emphasized 
the  life  that  now  is,  magnified  its  pleasures,  and  irre- 
sistibly lured  its  lovers  into  realms  rich  in  intellectual 
and  aesthetic  delights. 


22         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

The  result  of  the  new  nurture  was  to  beget  a  temper 
the  very  opposite  of  that  servile  type  which  the  repressive 
tyranny  of  the  Church  had  bred  in  the  popular  mind, 
a  temper  which  has  been  well  expressed  by  the  word 
"humanism."  Humanism  meant  the  reclaiming  for  man 
of  the  values  of  the  present  world,  a  rediscovery  of  the 
fruitfulness  and  dignity  of  the  human  intellect  in  connec- 
tion with  the  things  of  time,  the  reappropriation  of  the 
earth  and  its  treasures  for  human  uses  and  enjoyment. 

In  the  meantime  Italy  had  become  the  schoolmaster 
of  Europe  in  all  departments  of  polite  learning.  Scholars 
of  all  nations  flocked  to  her  schools.  In  literature  the 
best  classical  models  were  earnestly  studied,  and  they 
lent  themselves  to  the  creation  of  new  intellectual  tastes 
and  standards.  This  revival  of  ancient  learning  was 
accompanied  by  great  awakening  of  the  sense  of  things 
beautiful  in  nature.  It  was  this  period  which  pro- 
duced many  of  the  great  masters  in  painting,  in  sculp- 
ture, in  architecture.  It  was  the  age  of  Raphael,  of 
Da  Vinci,  of  Titian,  of  Michael  Angelo,  of  Brunelleschi 
and  Donatello.  In  Italy  the  Renaissance  especially 
wrought  itself  out  through  a  wide  revival  of  classical 
learning,  through  the  awakening  of  immortal  art,  all 
of  which  tended  to  beget  in  the  popular  mind  a  love 
of  things  purely  temporal  coupled  with  a  wide  indiffer- 
ence to  the  higher  claims  of  the  spiritual.  The  spirit 
of  humanism  wrought  reactions  both  in  the  Church 
and  in  general  thought  which  in  the  end,  whatever  the 
intellectual  illumination  of  the  times  or  the  outward 
show  of  refinement,  were  accompanied  by  a  moral  laxity 
of  society  second  only  to  that  which  centuries  earlier 
had  prepared  the  dissolution  of  the  empire. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  23 

In  the  north  of  Europe,  in  Germany,  in  the  Lowlands, 
in  France,  and  in  England,  the  Renaissance  entered, 
though  much  later  in  the  order  of  time,  to  work  out 
far  different  results  than  in  Italy.  Spain,  of  all  coun- 
tries north  of  the  Alps,  was  least  molded  by  the  new 
spirit,  because  here,  more  than  in  any  other  country 
of  Europe,  the  reign  of  the  Inquisition  persisted.  France 
was  doubtless  more  than  any  other  state  the  recipient 
of  the  direct  overflow  and  influence  of  Italian  culture. 
In  Germany  the  revival  of  learning,  while  represented 
by  great  secular  scholarship,  was  characterized  by  a 
moral  earnestness  which  finally  found  its  irresistible 
expression  in  the  Reformation,  a  movement  which,  far 
more  than  any  which  had  preceded  it,  meant  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  emancipation  of  northern  Europe. 
The  influence  of  the  Reformation,  under  quite  diverse 
types,  wrought  the  most  powerful  changes  in  intellect 
and  faith  not  only  in  Germany,  but  throughout  Switzer- 
land, France,  and  the  Lowlands. 

England,  separated  from  the  continent,  was  the  last 
to  receive  and  to  be  benefited  by  the  Renaissant  revival. 
To  this  country  the  movement  brought  both  a  great 
religious  reformation  and  a  marvelous  birth  of  intellectual 
life.  From  the  one  was  born  the  Protestant  Church 
of  England,  and  afterward  Puritanism.  From  the  other 
there  finally  sprang  one  of  the  most  resplendent  eras 
in  the  intellectual  history  of  the  modern  world — the 
age  of  Elizabethan  letters. 

The  general  effect  upon  Europe  and  the  world  of 
the  renaissance  of  learning  in  these  centuries  cannot 
be  stated  in  a  single  term.  It  meant  not  simply  a 
widely  awakened  taste  for  and  a  repossession  of  ancient 


24         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

learning ;  it  meant  also  a  departure  of  the  human  mind  in 
the  direction  of  new  conquests,  in  the  pursuit  of  new  dis- 
coveries. It  meant  the  birth  of  new  civilizations,  of  new 
faiths,  of  new  philosophies,  the  summoning  to  life  of  the 
spirit  of  creative  invention,  the  advent  of  a  new  and 
unprecedented  era  of  arts  and  industries,  an  indefinite 
enlargement  upon  human  vision  of  the  universe  itself. 

In  the  same  general  period  several  great  events 
occurred  which  were  the  indispensable  auxiliaries  to 
the  new  awakening  of  mind.  Two  events  of  inseparable 
and  immeasurable  importance  were  the  manufacture  of 
paper  and  the  invention  of  printing.  The  art  of  paper- 
making  in  a  simple  form  seems  to  have  been  known 
by  the  Chinese  even  before  the  Christian  era.  Paper 
was  somewhat  extensively  used  by  the  Arabs  as  early 
as  the  eighth  century,  but  its  manufacture  for  general 
use  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  introduced  into  Europe 
before  the  fourteenth  century.  The  origin  of  printing 
as  a  practical  art  is  more  or  less  wrapped  in  obscurity. 
It  is  clear  that  it  did  not  yield  much  utility  before  the 
latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  origin  of  gunpowder,  though  an  invention  of 
incalculable  consequence  to  civilization,  is  another  event 
hidden  in  obscurity.  Its  introduction  into  Europe  as 
an  agency  of  warfare  may  be  dated  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  mariner's  compass,  as  the  invention  of 
paper,  originated  with  the  Chinese;  but  its  acquisition 
by  the  European  navigator  in  the  fifteenth  century 
was  an  event  of  greatest  importance.  From  thence 
it  was  to  play  a  most  signal  part  in  giving  to  man  a 
mastery  of  the  seas.  It  was  in  this  period  that  the 
first  really  great  voyages  of  exploration  were  made — 


THE  RENAISSANCE  25 

that  by  which  Columbus  discovered  America,  the  round- 
ing of  the  Cape  by  Diaz,  and  the  finding  of  a  sea-passage 
to  India  by  Vasco  da  Gama. 

The  events  thus  briefly  noted  are  in  their  consequences 
to  be  reckoned  among  the  most  momentous  in  history. 
The  combined  arts  of  paper-making  and  of  printing 
were  to  revolutionize  the  entire  appliances  of  education, 
to  destroy  all  star-chamber  and  priestly  monopoly  of 
the  things  of  the  intellect,  and  ultimately  to  make 
accessible  to  a  universal  democracy  all  the  fruits  of 
human  learning.  The  introduction  of  gunpowder  was 
not  only  utterly  to  change  the  methods  of  warfare, 
to  place  in  the  hands  of  civilization  a  weapon  against 
which  barbaric  invasions  could  be  broken  and  repelled, 
but  it  was  the  most  important  step  in  the  evolution 
of  those  terrific  armaments  and  navies  the  appalling 
possibilities  of  which  as  agencies  of  destruction  go  far 
to-day  toward  preserving  a  perpetual  truce  of  peace 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

It  is  impossible  to  measure  the  historic  consequences 
which  were  to  ensue  from  the  new  conquest  of  the  seas. 
This  all  meant  not  simply  an  immense  widening  of 
man's  vision  of  the  world,  the  substitution  by  com- 
merce of  the  oceans  in  place  of  a  single  inland  sea,  the 
removal  of  the  mercantile  supremacy  of  Europe  from 
Italy  to  nations  bordering  on  the  Atlantic:  it  meant 
the  introduction  of  a  new  era  of  world-wide  intercourse 
between  the  nations  of  mankind.  The  passage  to  India 
was  an  initial  and  prophetic  movement  in  the  great 
drama  of  governmental,  commercial,  and  philosophic 
interest  as  enacted  between  the  Orient  and  the  civiliza- 
tions of  Europe  in  the  last  four  centuries. 


26        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

The  discovery  of  America  in  the  very  morning  of 
the  modern  world  was  an  event  fraught  with  supreme 
significance.  It  was  like  the  opening  up  in  the  fullness 
of  time  of  a  rich  heritage  which  Providence  had  held 
in  reservation  for  a  privileged  age.  The  long  and  pain- 
ful agitations  and  travail  of  European  thought  had 
given  birth  to  ideas  which  held  in  themselves  the  material 
for  new  charters  of  human  rights;  for  new  systems  of 
government  which  should  not  be  erected  on  the  basis 
of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  but  on  the  sovereignty  of 
citizenship;  for  a  free  Church  in  which  there  should  be 
recognition  of  the  sacredness  both  of  the  conscience 
and  reason  of  the  individual  worshiper.  But  in  Europe, 
great  as  may  have  been  the  movement  of  mind,  many 
and  valuable  as  may  have  been  the  reforms  wrought, 
there  was  no  room  for  the  successful  trial  of  these  great 
departures.  Her  territories  were  too  much  under  the 
thrall  of  hereditary  ideas;  they  who  had  the  power  to 
control  her  policies  both  in  state  and  Church  were  them- 
selves so  much  under  the  dominion  of  tradition,  and 
so  little  inspired  by  the  vision  of  the  seer,  as  to 
make  it  impracticable  that  anywhere  within  her 
bounds  should  be  furnished  an  adequate  theater  for 
the  working  out  of  these  new  and  needed  programs  of 
civilization. 

America  now  arose  from  behind  the  oceans  as  a  ver- 
itable world  of  promise.  On  her  virgin  soil  and  in  her 
free  atmosphere  there  would  be  abundant  opportunity 
for  the  realization  of  the  ideas  of  liberty  which  had 
been  born  through  the  tribulations  and  in  the  dreams 
of  the  world's  most  prophetic  minds.  The  day  of  great 
democracies   was   about   to  dawn   in  history.     America 


THE  RENAISSANCE  27 

was  the  only  land  in  which  these  institutions  could 
be  successfully  planted  and  their  ideals  fairly  tried. 

Our  brief  and  partial  survey  of  the  period  of  the 
Renaissance  has  revealed  many  new  ideas  and  forces 
which  have  entered  as  factors  into  the  making  of  the 
modern  world.  The  fact  of  nationality,  and  the  dis- 
tinct part  which  the  individual  nation  was  to  play  in 
influencing  a  general  scheme  of  civilization,  were  ideas 
which  had  their  development  in  this  period  of  European 
history  as  never  before.  From  the  same  background 
of  thought  there  arose  newly  born  the  conception  of 
the  values  of  the  individual.  The  value  of  the  nation 
is  finally  to  be  estimated  by  the  strength  and  worth 
of  the  individuals  who  are  responsible  for  directing  its 
life.  We  have  noted  some  of  the  influences  which 
contributed  to  this  result;  but  the  worth  of  man  as  man, 
a  sense  of  his  intellectual  possibilities,  of  his  value  as 
a  distinct  constituent  in  the  social  organism,  of  the 
sacredness  of  his  life  and  rights — all  of  this  received 
in  this  period  a  development  hitherto  unrealized.  This 
period  repossessed  itself  with  marvelous  alertness  of 
intellectual  treasures  which  for  centuries  had  been 
practically  lost  to  the  world.  A  great  wealth  of  ancient 
learning,  as  if  recovered  from  its  tomb,  came  back  into 
possession  of  the  human  mind.  All  this  brought  with 
it  a  quickening  of  thought,  an  inspiration  and  broaden- 
ing of  vision,  out  of  which  were  to  be  born  new  literatures, 
new  inventions,  and  the  fruitful  impulses  of  a  new  and 
universal  progress  for  mankind. 

Wonderful  inventions  and  the  daring  spirit  of  explora- 
tion combined  not  simply  to  give  man  command  of 
great  new  forces,  but  to  place  in  his  hands  the  titles 


28        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

of  new  continents  as  the  seats  of  future  empire  and 
of  coming  civilizations.  Crowning  all,  the  Reformation 
wrought  a  vast  emancipation  of  the  conscience  from 
ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  imparted  an  immense  moral 
energy  to  the  human  mind  throughout  Europe. 

But  conspicuously,  even  if  indefinably,  there  entered 
into  all  these  movements,  as  their  very  animating  soul, 
a  new  creative  spirit  which,  not  less  certainly  than  that 
which  brooded  over  ancient  chaos,  and  which  more, 
perhaps,  than  any  of  the  visible  agencies  which  we 
may  define,  was  to  develop  from  the  turbulent  and 
diverse  conditions  of  the  times  the  new  order  of  the 
modem  world.  No  contrast  can  be  more  significant 
than  that  which  is  presented  between  the  sixteenth 
and  the  twelfth  centuries.  We  know,  and  can  trace 
many  of  the  forces  which  wrought  in  this  eventful  field 
of  history.  But  it  remains  that  we  must  still  acquaint 
ourselves  with  many  underlying  movements  before  we 
can  truly  appreciate  that  intellectual  world  known  as 
"Modern  Thought." 


SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION 


29 


The  recent  excavation  of  the  tombs  of  the  Nile  kings,  and  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  Syrian  plains,  reveal  a  people  at  a  high  stage  of 
civilization,  five  and  perhaps  seven  or  ten  thousand  years  before  our 
era.  Their  temples,  their  palaces,  their  libraries,  their  sculpture, 
their  jewelry,  their  sanitary  and  plumbing  arrangements  even,  tell 
that  this  remote  day  must  have  been  but  as  yesterday  compared  with 
the  distant  time  when  troglodyte  man  left  his  bones,  his  weapons  and 
instruments  of  flint,  by  the  side  of  the  remains  of  animals  now  in  part 
extinct,  in  the  caves  wherein  he  dwelt. — Carl  Snyder. 

The  idea  of  evolution,  like  the  true  conception  of  language  and 
grammar,  took  shape  outside  the  field  of  biblical  study.  Yet  the 
biblical  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  one  of  the  main  causes  of 
the  conception;  for  evolution  was  a  social  programme  before  it 
became  a  scientific  hypothesis.  The  idea  is  not  a  trespasser  upon 
the  biblical  field. — Professor  Henry  S.  Nash. 

There  are  types  of  minds  to  which  the  idea  of  necessity  brings  a 
vague  shudder,  as  at  the  closing  of  iron  gates.  At  each  great  step  in 
the  development  of  our  world-conceptions  these  emotional  natures 
are  stirred  to  revolt  or  fright.  But  if  the  larger  knowledge  seems  to 
subtract  alike  from  the  individual  and  the  race  something  of  their 
old  importance,  we  need  not  forget  that  this  knowledge  is  ours,  and 
has  been  dug  out  by  the  race  itself.  Perhaps  this  is  the  true  wonder. 
In  any  event,  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  grandeur  of  the  achievement; 
for  in  it  the  intellect  of  man  has  in  some  cases  turned  round  upon  its 
antecedents  and  the  universe  of  which  it  is  corporeally  so  infinitely 
slight  a  part. — Carl  Snyder. 


3° 


CHAPTER  III 
SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION 

Columbus  was  the  discoverer  of  a  new  world.  Luther 
was  the  apostle  of  a  new  liberty. 

The  one  was  a  prophet  of  the  unknown.  A  trained 
admiral  of  the  seas,  he  had  a  conviction  that  the  world 
was  a  sphere,  and  that  behind  Western  seas  other  lands 
were  awaiting  discovery.  Inspired  by  this  conviction, 
neither  popular  incredulity,  ridicule,  nor  finally  the 
spirit  of  savage  mutiny  could  daunt  his  purpose.  In  a 
faith  that  made  him  invincible  he  aimed  the  prows  of 
a  forlorn  little  fleet  into  unknown  waters,  and,  steadfast 
to  his  purpose,  even  when  his  ears  were  greeted  by  the 
murmurs  of  his  suspicious  and  hostile  crews,  he  sailed 
on  and  on  till  one  day  his  anchors  were  cast  on  the 
shores  of  a  new  continent.  That  day  might  well  be 
chosen  as  marking  the  real  advent  of  modern  history. 

The  vision  of  the  other,  as  in  a  lightning  flash  of 
inspiration,  had  come  to  see  one  of  God's  great  truths, 
a  truth  carrying  in  itself  a  divine  charter  liberating  the 
human  conscience  from  the  tyranny  of  error  and  of 
unholy  priestcraft.  The  crucial  scene  is  thus  described 
by  Carlyle:  "The  young  emperor,  Charles  V,  with  all 
the  princes  of  Germany,  papal  nuncios,  dignitaries  spir- 
itual and  temporal,  are  assembled  there:  Luther  is  to 
appear  and  answer  for  himself,  whether  he  will  recant 
or  not.  The  world's  pomp  and  power  sits  there  on 
this  hand;  on  that  stands  up  for  God's  truth  one  man, 
the  poor  miner,  Hans  Luther's  son.  .  .  .  Luther  said  to 

31 


32        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

the  pope,  'This  thing  of  yours  that  you  call  a  pardon 
for  sins,  it  is  a  bit  of  rag-paper  with  ink.  It  is  nothing 
else.  God  alone  can  pardon  sins.  Popeship,  spiritual 
Fatherhood  of  God's  Church,  is  that  a  vain  semblance, 
of  cloth  and  parchment?  It  is  an  awful  fact.  God's 
Church  is  not  a  semblance.  Heaven  and  hell  are  not 
semblances.  I  stand  on  this,  since  you  drive  me  to  it. 
Standing  on  this,  I  a  poor  German  monk  am  stronger 
than  you  all.  I  stand  solitary,  friendless,  but  on  God's 
truth;  you  with  your  tiaras,  triple-hats,  with  your 
treasuries  and  armories,  thunders  spiritual  and  temporal, 
stand  on  the  Devil's  lie,  and  are  not  so  strong!'  " 

And  thus  was  the  humble  monk  of  Erfurt,  in  a  su- 
preme psychological  moment  in  history,  the  mouth- 
piece of  a  new  emancipation  for  the  human  conscience 
and  reason. 

The  two  incidents — the  one  of  Columbus  in  the  name 
of  his  sovereign  taking  possession  of  a  new  world;  the 
other  of  Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms  standing  alone 
in  the  presence  of  a  world-ruling  hierarchy  to  announce 
a  new  spiritual  liberty  for  mankind — may  be  selected 
as  fitting  antitypes  of  the  greatest,  the  richest,  the  most 
inspirational  and  prophetic  inheritance  which  has  yet 
come  to  the  race:  the  world  of  modern  thought.  From 
the  days  of  these  great  leaders  the  human  mind  has 
been  in  a  constant  and  intensifying  mood  of  explora- 
tion, in  a  mood  to  invade  all  accessible  fields  of  knowl- 
edge; and  less  and  less  has  this  mood  been  satisfied 
with  the  mere  decisions  of  councils  or  the  dictates  of 
official  authority.  The  spirit  of  modern  research  is  not 
greatly  reverent  of  any  mere  tradition,  however  hoary 
its  history.     It  is  satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  the 


SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION  33 

truth,  of  all  truth  attainable.  It  seeks  this  truth  from 
first  sources.  It  searches  the  skies  with  a  telescope  and 
the  solar  spectrum;  the  earth  with  the  microscope  and 
chemical  analysis.  It  values  truth  as  nothing  else,  and 
for  the  truth  will  accept  no  substitutes. 

The  world  of  modern  thought  as  a  superstructure 
rests  upon  foundations  laid  by  supreme  master-builders. 
It  should  be  accepted  without  the  saying  that  into  this 
structure  there  has  been  freely  wrought  all  material  of 
truth  which  has  descended  from  the  past.  It  should 
be  assumed  by  none  that  a  slighting  estimate  can  be 
put  upon  this  inheritance.  In  quality  of  mind  the 
ancient  ages  produced  thinkers  as  keen-sighted  and 
noble  as  any  who  have  ever  lived.  In  the  realm  of 
abstract  thought  Plato,  the  pagan,  is  without  a  peer 
among  human  thinkers.  As  teachers  and  exemplars  in 
the  spheres  of  moral  insight,  of  holy  worship,  of  right- 
eousness, and  of  lofty  and  commanding  views  of  God, 
history  pays  supreme  honor  to  the  Hebrew  prophets 
and  to  the  long  succession  of  Christian  apostles  and 
martyrs. 

So  far  as  ancient  thought  is  concerned,  its  inheritance 
is  priceless.  It  has,  however,  been  largely  the  function 
and  the  glory  of  the  modern  mind  to  reinvestigate  all 
ancient  thinking,  to  retranslate  it  into  terms  of  present- 
day  knowledge,  so  that,  in  distinction  from  all  learning 
strictly  modern,  the  scholarship  of  the  present  age  has 
a  better  command  of  ancient  literatures,  religions,  philos- 
ophies, and  sciences  than  was  ever  before  known.  To 
use  as  an  illustration  the  Bible:  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
its  entire  history,  the  atmosphere  and  environment  in 
which  its  different  books  were  written,  the  varied  pur- 


34        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

poses  for  which  the  books  were  composed,  the  chrono- 
logical order  of  their  appearance,  the  sources  of  their 
substance,  their  authority  and  the  genuineness  of  their 
authorship — all  this,  and  immeasurably  more — is  far 
better  ascertained  by  present-day  scholarship  than  was 
ever  before  possible.  So  much,  in  passing,  as  a  just 
recognition  of  both  the  ancient  thinker  and  the  modern 
scholar. 

I  now  pass  to  a  brief  review  of  some  of  the  more  prom- 
inent of  the  creative  agencies  which  underlie  the  dis- 
tinctive world  of  modern  thought.  It  may  be  said  that 
these  agencies  are  all  of  them  scientific  in  their  character. 

A  fact  of  the  first  order  of  importance  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  modern  world  is  that  which  brought  to  the 
human  mind  an  apprehension  of  the  infinite  dimensions 
of  the  physical  universe  in  which  we  dwell.  Near  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  Copernicus,  a  German 
educated  for  the  priesthood,  wrote  a  book  which  was 
destined  to  create  a  radical  revolution  and  a  new  era 
in  the  science  of  astronomy.  In  opposition  to  the 
geocentric  theory  of  the  Ptolemaic  philosophy,  a  philos- 
ophy which  had  held  sway  in  the  learned  world  for 
fourteen  centuries,  he  proclaimed  the  heliocentric  char- 
acter of  the  solar  system.  In  due  order  Galileo  with 
his  telescope  came  forward  to  lend  powerful  confirmation 
to  the  theory  of  Copernicus.  There  follow  in  succession 
the  illustrious  names  of  Tycho  Brahe,  Kepler,  Newton.. 
Brahe  demonstrated  as  never  before  the  relative  posi- 
tions and  movements  of  the  planets.  Kepler,  by  processes 
of  incredible  toil,  so  mastered  the  laws  of  planetary 
movements  as  to  secure  for  himself  historic  title  as 
the  "Great  Legislator  of  the  Starry  Heavens."     It  was 


SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION  35 

left  for  Newton  not  only  in  his  integral  calculus  to  fur- 
nish a  system  by  which  the  intricate  and  complex  move- 
ments of  the  heavenly  bodies  could  be  reduced  to  accurate 
mathematical  statement,  but  there  remained  for  his 
later  life  the  greater  glory  of  developing  the  theory  of 
universal  gravitation.  This  theory,  in  its  far-reaching 
consequences,  has  been  fittingly  characterized  as  probably 
"the  most  important  single  discovery  in  the  history 
of  science."  It  not  only  reveals  the  principles  which 
decide  the  relative  positions  and  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  but  it  furnishes  the  foundation  on 
which  rests  the  greatest  of  scientific  generalizations — 
the  unity  of  the  universe. 

It  is  not  necessary  at  this  point  to  pursue  this  fas- 
cinating subject  further,  save  to  say  that  the  Copernican 
astronomy  has  served  to  multiply  upon  human  concep- 
tion by  infinite  measurements  the  dimensions  of  the 
physical  universe. 

Another  great  movement  of  modern  thought,  one  in 
every  way  worthy  to  keep  company  with  that  which 
has  so  enlarged  our  conceptions  of  astronomy,  is  that 
which  furnishes  demonstration  of  the  immeasurable  time 
through  which  the  worlds  have  existed.  The  nebular 
theory  of  Laplace  asserts  that  originally  the  vast  space 
now  occupied  by  the  solar  system  was  filled  with  a 
diffused  and  heated  gas,  from  the  consolidations  of 
which,  under  the  movements  of  gravity,  the  present 
solar  universe  was  formed.  The  process  of  the  con- 
densation out  of  which  was  finally  evolved  the  present 
order  required  for  its  consummation  indefinite  ages. 
The  least  that  can  be  said  of  this  theory  is  that  it  was 
a  daring  flight  of  the  scientific  imagination.     But  the 


3  6         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

real  thing  to  be  said  is  that  the  scientific  world  gen- 
erally accepts  this  theory  or  one  that  is  tantamount 
to  the  same.  What  is  more,  this  hypothesis  of  Laplace 
is  found  to  be  only  a  single  factor  in  a  philosophy  of 
development  under  which  the  modern  scientific  mind 
seeks  to  define  and  measure  cosmic  processes. 

It  may  be  «aid  that  in  the  closing  years  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  geology  fairly  took  its  place  of  recognition 
in  the  family  of  sciences.  But  who  shall  portray  to 
us  the  consternations,  the  mental  agues,  the  hysteria 
of  emotion,  which  arose  among  the  fearful  as  this  young 
science  pursued  its  triumphal  course?  It  is  enough  to 
say  that  no  sane  man  of  to-day  calls  in  question  the 
legitimacy  of  geologic  science  or  the  validity  of  its  findings. 
But  geology  requires  a  scheme  of  earth-making  which 
dates  back  for  its  origin  untold  ages.  It  tells  us  that 
man  himself,  though  comparatively  of  late  origin,  has 
been  a  dweller  upon  the  earth  for  a  very  long  period 
of  time.  And  this  program  for  the  world  and  man 
science  accepts  with  unhesitating  confidence. 

In  the  year  1882  the  most  epoch-making  mind  of 
the  nineteenth  century  ceased  its  earthly  activities — 
Charles  Darwin.  Twenty-three  years  earlier  he  had  pub- 
lished a  book,  The  Origin  of  Species,  which,  like  a  great 
plowshare,  was  to  bury  much  of  the  vegetation  of  cur- 
rent philosophies  under  the  ground.  Personally  he  was 
one  of  the  most  lovable  of  men.  While  scientifically  one 
of  the  best  furnished  minds  that  ever  entered  upon  a 
great  work  of  investigation,  he  was  always  shrinkingly 
modest  in  his  estimate  of  himself.  He  never  took 
pleasure  in  disturbing  the  religious  or  scientific  convic- 
tions of  his  fellows.     He  not  only  brought  to  bear  the 


SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION  37 

sanest  judgment  upon  all  his  investigations,  but  he 
coupled  with  his  judgment  infinite  patience  and  toil. 
He  was  exceedingly  hesitant  lest  he  should  make  prema- 
ture announcement  of  conclusions  reached.  His  great 
book  embodying  his  mature  convictions  was  long  withheld 
from  the  printer,  that  in  the  latest  light  he  might,  if 
need  be,  revise  his  statements.  His  estimate  of  himself 
is  expressed  in  the  following:  "My  success  as  a  man  of 
science,  whatever  this  may  have  amounted  to,  has 
been  determined,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  by  complex 
and  diversified  mental  qualities  and  conditions.  Of  these 
the  most  important  have  been — the  love  of  science — 
unbounded  patience  in  long  reflecting  over  any  subject 
— industry  in  observing  and  collecting  facts — and  a  fair 
share  of  invention  as  well  as  of  common  sense.  With 
such  modest  abilities  as  I  possess,  it  is  truly  surprising 
that  I  should  have  influenced  to  a  considerable  extent 
the  belief  of  scientific  men  on  some  important  points." 

It  was  not,  of  course,  to  be  expected  that  a  philosophy 
so  revolutionary  as  was  that  of  Darwin,  one  threatening 
the  destruction  of  so  many  cherished  beliefs,  should 
pass  at  once  to  acceptance  even  with  the  world  of 
scholars.  This  philosophy  merited  the  stoutest  challenge. 
If  it  were  false,  it  deserved  instant  and  merciless  over- 
throw; if  it  were  based  in  the  truth,  it  could  afford  to 
bide  the  time  of  its  approval.  And  this  philosophy 
was  challenged,  challenged  all  along  the  line  with  the 
biggest  thunder  of  intellectual  gunnery.  It  was  attacked 
by  every  method  known  to  dialectical  warfare.  Grave 
dignitaries  from  high  seats  of  learning  brought  against 
it  all  their  treasured  logic  and  reason.  It  was  cari- 
catured  and   travestied    by   every   art   of    buffoonery. 


38         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

These  travesties  and  caricatures  became  stock  imple- 
ments on  the  lips  of  cheap  platform  lecturers  who  used 
them,  as  a  juggler  might  use  a  charm,  to  awaken  up- 
roarious applause  from  audiences  whose  members  were 
ignorant  of  a  single  principle  involved  in  the  philosophy 
itself.  It  is  sad  to  be  forced  to  say  it,  but  many  a  pulpit 
seemed  to  find  it  a  cheap  and  easy  way  to  vindicate 
its  own  orthodoxies  by  now  and  then  holding  Darwinism 
up  to  ridicule.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  intellectual 
movement  ever  passed  to  its  triumph  through  a  more 
trying  gauntlet  of  protest  than  has  the  Darwinian 
philosophy. 

It  is  now  more  than  fifty  years  since  Darwin  pub- 
lished his  Origin  of  Species.  The  fortresses  of  opposition 
are  silent  and  empty.  Thought  has  had  time  for  adjust- 
ments. The  world  of  scholarship  and  of  science  is 
committed  to  the  Darwinian  philosophy.  It  is  found  to 
be  a  philosophy  which  explains  more  facts  and  solves 
more  questions,  and  more  satisfactorily,  than  any  other 
known  to  human  thought.  It  is  found  to  fit  into 
the  great  trends  of  natural  history.  As  a  law  of 
development  it  takes  its  place  naturally  in  a  universal 
order  along  with  the  nebular  hypothesis  and  geologi- 
cal evolution.  It  is  seen  to  have  an  increasingly  wide 
application  as  suggesting  normal  processes  in  the  de- 
velopment of  numerous  sciences.  Even  the  Christian 
theologian  has  ceased  to  fear  Darwinism.  It  no  longer 
suggests  itself  to  him  as  in  antagonism  to  a  theistic 
faith.  On  the  contrary,  it  suggests  to  him  infinite 
enrichments  of  his  conception  of  God's  method  with  his 
universe. 

All  this  is  far  from  saying  that  the  philosophy  known 


SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION  39 

as  Darwinism  was  elaborated  to  its  present  perfection 
by  Darwin  himself.  Since  its  first  announcement  by 
the  great  author,  the  contributions  of  a  half  century 
of  the  world's  best  thinking  have  come  to  its  enrich- 
ment. It  seems,  however,  as  certain  of  its  place  in 
universal  thought  as  does  the  Copernican  astronomy  or 
the  Newtonian  philosophy  of  gravitation. 

At  this  point  we  may  properly  pause  for  a  little  to 
inquire  as  to  the  effect  of  the  great  mental  movements 
above  indicated  upon  some  traditional  beliefs,  beliefs 
not  simply  ecclesiastical  but  firmly  intrenched  in  the 
teachings  of  science  as  well.  For  many  ages  it  was 
believed  that  the  earth  was  the  center  of  the  universe. 
Above  the  earth,  lifted  not  so  very  far  away,  the  over- 
arching sky  hung  as  a  canopy.  Attached  to  this  canopy 
the  stars  were  thickly  suspended,  and  their  chief  function 
was,  that  of  the  sun  to  light  the  earthly  day,  and  of 
the  lesser  stars  to  ornament  the  night  heavens,  and  to 
relieve  the  mundane  darkness.  In  this  view  the  entire 
heavens  were  subsidiary  to  the  earth.  Man  in  con- 
templating the  physical  universe  could  easily  magnify 
his  own  importance  in  creation.  He  was  indeed  made 
but  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  and  was  crowned 
with  glory  and  honor.  He  held  the  scepter  of  dominion 
over  the  works  of  God;  all  things  of  field  and  sea  and 
air  were  put  under  his  feet.  He  was  the  crowned  citizen 
of  the  one  world  for  which  God  had  made  all  things 
else. 

But,  how  changed  all  this  perspective  in  the  light 
of  the  new  astronomy!  We  now  know  that  in  the 
small  family  of  our  solar  system  alone  the  earth  is  but 
one  of  its  minor  planets,  and  that  in  the  greater  universe 


4o        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

it  is  but  a  mere  sand-grain  snuggling  in  its  place  on 
the  shores  of  immensity.1 

Modern  science  has  not  only  infinitely  enlarged  man's 
conception  of  the  universe  in  which  he  lives,  but  it 
has  swept  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy  from  the  skies, 
driven  it  from  its  last  refuge  in  human  thought.  This 
system,  like  a  wrapped  mumnry,  has  been  consigned 
to  the  museums  of  literary  curiosity,  where  its  chief 
use  is  to  remind  men  who  shall  come  after  of  the  tragic 
fact  that  for  nearly  fifteen  centuries  the  human  intellect 
was  held  in  the  thrall  of  a  great  system  founded  in 
grossest  error. 

The  science  of  geology  has  likewise  either  revolu- 
tionized or  utterly  destroyed  many  cherished  and  age- 
long beliefs.  Until  within  very  recent  times,  a  well-nigh 
universal  conviction,  held  in  common  by  science  as 
well  as  by  the  ecclesiastical  teacher,  was  that  of  the 
creation  of  the  earth  in  six  literal  days  of  twenty-four 
hours  each.  The  general  interpretation  of  Genesis, 
though  as  is  now  felt  quite  needlessly  so,  made  the 
Bible  teach  this  view.  Being  clothed,  as  was  supposed, 
with  the  sanctity  of  a  divine  revelation,  this  theory 
of  the  earth's  origin  was  most  religiously  intrenched 
in  human  thought.  Any  attack  upon  its  validity  was 
felt  to  be  a  sort  of  treason  against  holy  truth.  The 
mental  attitude  of  multitudes  of  good  people  was  that 
if  the  claims  of  geology  meant  the  destruction  of  this 
view,  then  geology  itself  must  be  a  science  falsely  so 
called,  something  to  be  shunned  by  all  lovers  of  the  truth. 
But  an  enlightened  geology  has  won  its  right  of  way, 

iAs  I  shall    recur  more  fully  to  the  lessons  of   modern  astronomy — see 
Chapter  XIV — I  do  not  here  further  elaborate  this  illustration. 


SCIENTIFIC  EXPLORATION  41 

and  the  six-day  creation  view  has  been  consigned  to 
the  limbo  of  superseded  beliefs. 

Another  change  in  popular  belief  which  geology  and 
its  kindred  sciences  have  effected  is  with  reference  to 
the  time  of  man's  advent  upon  the  earth.  The  old 
chronologies  with  childlike  confidence  started  with  the 
year  i,  punctuating  that  year  by  the  creation  of  Adam, 
and  then  by  the  stride  of  events  walked  easily  down 
the  centuries.  According  to  their  testimony,  the  first 
man  was  created  about  six  thousand  years  ago.  But 
now,  cold  history,  to  say  nothing  about  geology,  as 
deciphered  from  the  monuments,  proves  man's  existence 
long  prior  to  six  thousand  years  ago.  The  testimony 
of  geology,  upon  the  other  hand,  a  testimony  now  ac- 
cepted in  the  court  of  science  as  indubitable,  asserts 
that  man  for  many  times  the  period  of  six  thousand 
years  has  been  a  citizen  of  the  earth. 

In  accepting  these  great  changes  in  conviction  wrought 
by  modern  scientific  discoveries  we  must  guard  our- 
selves against  any  undue  disparagement  of  man  himself. 
We  may  remember  that  if  the  universe  has  been  in- 
finitely extended  in  space,  and  immeasurably  projected 
in  time,  it  is  still  man's  Godlike  reason  that  has  dis- 
covered it  all.  Man  stands  in  his  place  under  the  uplifted 
heavens  a  being  more  divine  than  all  the  flaming  suns; 
he  walks  the  time-scarred  earth,  the  single  thinker 
who  alone  reads  its  ancient  secrets,  and  writes  the  Bible 
of  its  revelations. 


"For  though  the  giant  ages  hew  the  hill, 

And  break  the  shore, 

And  evermore 
Make  and  break  and  work  their  will; 


42         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

"Though  world  on  world  in  myriad  myriads  roll 

Round  us,  each  with  different  powers, 

And  other  forms  of  life  than  ours, 
What  know  we  greater  than  the  soul?" 

Our  query,  however,  is,  if  the  thought  of  the  past 
has  made  so  great  mistakes  in  its  interpretations  of 
nature,  is  it  not  also  probable  that  the  same  thought 
may  have  made  equal  mistakes  in  realms  of  religion 
and  philosophy?  It  is  my  purpose  reverently  to  pursue 
this  query. 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL   SCIENCE 


43 


From  the  infancy  of  the  race  there  have  been  minds  which,  turning 
aside  from  the  ordinary  pursuits  and  passions  of  men,  from  the  prizes 
of  trade,  from  the  clamor  of  war,  from  the  pluckings  of  fame,  have  given 
over  their  lives  to  the  search.  Argonauts  in  quest  of  the  golden  fleece 
of  knowledge  and  of  truth,  their  voyages  have  penetrated  to  the 
remotest  corners  of  the  earth  and  reached  out  among  the  stars.  .  .  . 
Civilization  is  their  work;  the  modern  world  is  in  some  sense  their 
creation.  Amid  the  destruction  and  decay  that  attends  all  else  from 
human  hands,  their  achievements  remain.  The  fabrics  of  the  king- 
doms melt  away;  where  Accad  and  where  Carthage  stood,  no  broken 
pillar  lifts  its  lonely  form  to  mark  the  spot  amid  the  desert  silences. 
The  dust  and  dreams  of  Caesar  mingle  with  the  forgotten  ashes  of  his 
slaves.  But  Archimedes'  lever  and  Thales'  magic  stone,  the  theorems 
of  Euclid  and  Hipparchus'  starry  sphere,  the  magnetic  compass  of 
the  dynasty  of  Tsin,  and  the  black  powder  of  Berthold  Schwartz  and 
his  forerunners,  the  pendulum  of  Ibn-Junis  and  Hans  Lippershey's 
far-reaching,  near-drawing  tubes,  the  presses  of  Gutenberg  and 
Coster,  the  balance  and  retorts  of  Lavoisier,  James  Watt's  laboring 
giants  of  steam,  Volta's  pile,  and  Faraday's  whirling  magnets,  are 
possessions  imperishable  while  civilization,  their  fruit,  survives. — 
Carl  Snyder. 

The  contrast  between  our  age  and  that  wherein  the  principle  of 
Tradition  found  a  free  field  is  as  broad  as  it  can  well  be.  Our  com- 
merce is  vast.  The  race  is  throwing  all  its  accumulations  of  experience 
into  one  collection.  Ideas  and  impressions  are  in  eager  competition. 
The  study  of  religion  is  comparative.  The  body  of  facts  within  our 
ken  is  steadily  and  rapidly  growing,  and  every  increase  of  data  deepens 
our  feeling  for  the  facts  that  are  pressing  forward  into  knowledge. 
Reason  is  forced  to  keep  open  house.  Hypotheses  cannot  maintain 
a  fixed  form. — Professor  Henry  S.  Nash. 

In  the  intellectual  life  there  has  been  an  unprecedented  leap  forward 
during  the  last  hundred  years.  Individually  we  are  not  more  gifted 
than  our  grandfathers,  but  collectively  we  have  wrought  out  more 
epoch-making  discoveries  and  inventions  in  one  century  than  the 
whole  race  in  the  untold  centuries  that  have  gone  before.  If  the 
twentieth  century  could  do  for  us  in  the  control  of  social  forces 
what  the  nineteenth  did  for  us  in  the  control  of  natural  forces, 
our  grandchildren  would  live  in  a  society  that  would  be  justified 
in  regarding  our  present  social  life  as  semibarbarous. — Professor 
Walter  Rauschenbusch. 


44 


CHAPTER  IV 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE 

Among  the  creative  factors  in  the  structure  of  modern 
thought  large  place  must  be  given  to  the  inductive 
philosophy.  The  inductive  philosophy,  which  seems  in- 
separably associated  with  the  name  of  Francis  Bacon, 
has,  by  its  applied  principles,  done  more  than  all  pre- 
ceding systems  not  only  to  give  man  a  supreme  mastery 
over  nature's  forces,  but  to  effectively  transform  these 
forces  themselves  into  working  agents  for  human  uses. 
Greece,  two  thousand  years  before  the  days  of  Bacon, 
bred  a  school  of  philosophers  as  keen  in  intellectual 
insight,  as  fruitful  in  their  power  of  mental  abstraction, 
as  any  race  of  thinkers  that  has  ever  lived.  The  philos- 
ophy of  these  ancient  minds  has  entered  vitally  and 
with  large  control  into  all  subsequent  philosophical 
thinking;  but  as  yielding  practical  utilities  fifty  years 
of  the  inductive  philosophy  has  proven  to  be  of  more 
value  than  many  centuries  of  Grecian  thought.  The 
Greek  philosophy  and  its  successors  were  theoretical  in 
their  aims.  They  spent  themselves  in  pursuit  of  ideals. 
They  ministered  alone  to  the  pleasures  of  an  intellectual 
aristocracy  ever  seeking  excursions  into  realms  of  ab- 
stract truth  and  beauty,  but  filled  with  a  lofty  scorn 
of  any  spirit  of  invention  which  would  utilize  the  forces 
of  nature  to  promote  the  material  comforts  of  mankind. 
"In  my  own  time,"  says  Seneca,  "there  have  been 
inventions  of  this  sort,  transparent  windows,  tubes  for 
diffusing  warmth  equally  through  all  parts  of  a  build- 

45 


46        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

ing,  shorthand,  which  has  been  carried  to  such  perfection 
that  a  writer  can  keep  pace  with  the  most  rapid  speaker. 
But  the  invention  of  such  things  is  drudgery  for  the 
lowest  slaves;  philosophy  lies  deeper.  It  is  not  her 
office  to  teach  men  how  to  use  their  hands.  The  object 
of  her  lessons  is  to  form  the  soul."  The  school  of  philos- 
ophy represented  by  Seneca  thought  that  the  highest 
use  of  science  was  not  to  give  man  practical  dominion 
over  the  forces  of  nature,  but  to  furnish  him  oppor- 
tunity to  exercise  his  mind  in  the  answering  of  subtle 
questions. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  permanent  glory  and  value 
of  the  inductive  philosophy  are  manifest  in  its  practical 
tendency  to  transform  the  earth  itself  into  a  paradise 
for  man's  abode.  Macaulay  has  undertaken  to  sum 
up  the  philosophy  of  which  he  makes  Bacon  the  great 
apostle  in  two  words — utility  and  progress.  On  the 
plane  of  the  industries,  the  arts,  and  the  sciences,  this 
philosophy  is  certainly  largely  to  be  adjudged  as  util- 
itarian. In  its  atmosphere  the  spirit  of  invention,  the 
appliances  of  industry,  discovery  of  the  secrets  of  nature, 
the  healing  arts,  added  comforts  in  the  home,  improved 
material  conditions  of  living — indeed,  immeasurable  min- 
istries for  the  enrichment  of  man's  life  upon  the  earth 
— have  flourished  and  multiplied  as  never  before.  It 
is  the  very  beneficence  of  this  philosophy  that  it  has 
put  into  man's  hands  the  key  to  nature's  wealth,  and 
has  shown  him  the  possibility  of  securing  for  himself 
in  this  human  life  all  the  material  comforts  of  an  Edenic 
estate.  But  justice  to  this  philosophy  demands  that 
we  shall  not  limit  its  benefits  to  mere  material  condi- 
tions.    As  a  system  of  applied  thought  it  has  vastly 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE  47 

enlarged  man's  insight  into  the  nature  of  things.  It 
has  intensified  his  thirst  for  truth.  It  has  enlarged 
his  confidence  in  the  reliability  of  his  own  intellectual 
processes,  and  has  done  much  in  every  way  to  separate 
the  modern  mind  from  that  subserviency  to  imposed 
authority  wrhich  clung  like  a  paralysis  to  mediaeval 
thought.  If  we  are  to  accept  Macaulay's  character- 
ization of  this  philosophy,  then  a  far  greater  emphasis 
should  be  placed  upon  its  genius  for  ministering  to 
progress  than  upon  its  mere  utilitarian  character.  Its 
ministry  to  real  progress  must  be  given  the  widest  > 
application.  It  is  a  philosophy  which  not  only  did 
much  to  break  down  mediaeval  superstition,  but  which 
has  contributed  vastly  on  its  intellectual  side  to  the 
freedom,  the  virility  and  fruitfulness  of  modern  thought. 
So  far  as  Bacon  is  personally  concerned,  many  mod- 
ern scientists  and  writers  would  dissent  widely  from 
Macaulay's  estimate  of  his  values.  Bacon  himself  was 
certainly  slow  to  give  his  personal  adhesion  to  some 
of  the  most  important  of  scientific  truths.  Dr.  Draper 
has  said  of  him:  "Few  scientific  pretenders  have  made 
more  mistakes  than  Lord  Bacon.  He  rejected  the 
Copernican  system,  and  spoke  insolently  of  its  great 
author;  he  undertook  to  criticise  adversely  Gilbert's 
treatise,  De  Magnete;  he  was  occupied  in  the  condemna- 
tion of  any  investigation  of  final  causes,  while  Harvey 
was  deducing  the  circulation  of  the  blood  from  Acqua- 
pendente's  discovery  of  the  valves  in  the  veins;  he  was 
doubtful  whether  instruments  were  of  any  advantage, 
while  Galileo  was  investigating  the  heavens  with  the 
telescope.  Ignorant  himself  of  every  branch  of  mathe- 
matics, he  presumed  that  they  were  useless  in  science 


48         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

but  a  few  years  before  Newton  achieved  by  their  aid 
his  immortal  discoveries."  The  probability  is,  whatever 
Bacon's  excellencies  or  defects,  that  even  had  he  not 
lived  at  all  the  world  would  have  duly  come  into  the 
benefits  of  the  inductive  philosophy. 

To  Immanuel  Kant,  more  than  to  any  other  single 
mind,  the  modern  world  is  indebted  for  a  philosophy 
adequate  to  vindicating  the  rights  of  the  human  soul, 
the  sacredness  of  personality,  as  against  the  growing 
and  overshadowing  tyranny  of  nature.  He  has  been 
charged  as  an  iconoclast  and  a  destroyer  of  the  strong!}' 
wrought  systems  of  his  predecessors,  but  the  fact  is 
that  the  philosophical  systems  which  occupied  the  field 
when  Kant  appeared  were  none  of  them  large  enough, 
nor  of  the  kind,  to  have  averted  the  subjection  of  modern 
thought  to  a  crass  deistic  materialism.  Kant  felt  all 
the  majesty  of  the  "starry  heavens,"  but  he  also  felt 
the  Sinai  of  "moral  law"  within  the  soul.  He  felt  that 
the  two  great  voices,  the  voice  of  nature  without  and 
that  of  the  moral  law  within,  could  not  be  in  conflict 
with  each  other,  and  with  the  strength  of  a  Titan  he 
hewed  his  way  through  the  mazes  of  thought  to  a  rational 
vindication  of  the  rights  of  the  soul,  of  its  individuality, 
of  its  dignity,  as  against  a  philosophy  which  would 
give  to  material  nature  an  exclusive  monopoly  of  being. 

COMPARATIVE  RELIGIONS 

A  study  which  has  done  much  to  revise  traditional 
conceptions  and  to  give  enlightened  views  as  to  God's 
relations  to  the  world  at  large  is  that  of  comparative 
religions.  This  study  may  now  be  designated  as  a 
science.     The  openness  of  the  entire  globe,  a  vast  inter- 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE  49 

world  commerce,  and  the  rapid- transit  methods  of  com- 
munication developed  in  the  last  fifty  years,  all  have 
furnished  great  opportunities  to  the  student  to  secure 
first-hand  acquaintance  with  the  history,  the  literature, 
the  social  character,  and  the  religious  faiths  and  customs 
of  all  nations. 

A  most  fruitful  agency  in  securing  the  data  for  this 
science  is  that  of  Christian  missionaries,  whose  enlight- 
ened and  benevolent  work  in  all  lands  has  given  them 
not  only  exceptional  opportunity  to  study  the  phases 
of  the  great  religions,  but  has  at  the  same  time  fur- 
nished them  with  most  urgent  motives  for  securing  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  same.  The  zeal  with  which 
this  study  has  been  prosecuted  is  well  illustrated  by 
the  story  of  Anquetil  du  Perron,  a  scholar  born  in  1731. 
As  a  student  in  Paris  he  acquainted  himself  with  Hebrew, 
Arabic,  and  Persian.  In  the  Royal  Library  a  fragment 
of  the  Zend-Avesta  fell  into  his  hands.  It  fired  him 
with  so  intense  desire  to  learn  the  Zend  and  the  Sanskrit 
languages  that  he  enlisted  as  a  common  soldier  to  be 
sent  to  India,  that  there  he  might  come  in  contact 
with  regions  of  knowledge  into  which  no  European  had 
entered.  Modern  appliances  have  made  it  easy  for  men 
of  like  spirit  to  study  at  first  hand,  at  their  very  temple 
doors,  all  the  great  religions  of  the  world. 

Among  English  scholars,  Professor  Max  Muller  was 
doubtless  the  most  fruitful  single  worker  in  this  field. 
He  mastered  the  Sanskrit  literatures,  and  translated 
the  sacred  books  of  India  for  use  by  Western  scholars. 
In  the  process  of  this  study  the  religions  of  the  world 
have  been  placed,  as  in  parallel  columns,  side  by  side 
with  each  other.     Their  points  of  resemblance  as  well 


50        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

as  of  dissimilarity  have  been  most  carefully  developed, 
with  the  result  that  the  outlook  by  the  average  Christian 
thinker  upon  the  conditions  of  the  religious  world  has 
not  only  been  greatly  broadened,  but  the  process  has 
necessitated  much  revision  of  previous  thinking. 

One  fact  which  has  been  clearly  affirmed  is  that  man 
universally  is  a  religious  being.  It  was  an  old  con- 
ception, one,  however,  without  standing  in  present 
philosophical  thought,  that  religion  is  the  creation  of 
rulers  and  of  priests.  But  religion  is  found  to  be  too 
universal,  too  deep-seated  in  human  nature,  to  give 
rational  place  to  such  a  view.  It  is  religion  that  ac- 
counts for  the  priest,  and  not  the  priest  who  is  the 
originator  of  religion.  The  priest  may  have  had  large 
influence  in  directing,  in  degrading  or  ennobling,  the 
modes  of  religious  expression;  but  for  such  influence  he 
has  been  dependent  always  and  absolutely  upon  the  deep 
and  ineradicable  fact  of  man's  natural  religiousness. 

The  expression  of  the  religious  life  is  as  varied  as 
the  tribes  of  men.  The  Bushmen  in  Australia,  the 
Fetich-worshipers  in  the  African  jungle,  in  their  methods 
of  worship  present  the  greatest  contrast  to  methods 
which  are  in  vogue  before  the  high  altar,  and  as  voiced 
in  the  stately  music  and  ritual  of  the  Christian  cathedral. 
The  worthiness  of  view  of  the  being  to  be  worshiped 
runs  through  infinite  gradations,  from  the  most  sodden 
idolatry  to  the  loftiest  conception  of  God  as  revealed 
in  the  Christian  Scriptures;  but  in  one  form  or  another 
the  religious  feeling  universally  prompts  men  to  wor- 
ship, nor  are  those  in  Christian  or  pagan  lands  who 
call  themselves  atheists,  infidels,  or  agnostics  an  exception 
in  themselves  to  this  general  law.     Even  such  as  profess 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE  51 

to  be  without  religion  are  inevitably  influenced  by  im- 
pressions of  forces  in  the  universe  not  themselves,  and 
to  which  they  are  subject;  and  their  religion,  blind  as 
it  may  seem,  is  governed  by  the  spirit  in  which  they 
relate  themselves  to  these  forces. 

Another  conviction  which  a  growing  acquaintance 
with  the  religions  of  the  world  has  brought  home  to 
the  Christian  thinker  is  that  God  has  truly  revealed 
himself  to  all  the  tribes  of  men.  He  has  not  left  him- 
self without  witness  with  any  nation.  To  all  peoples 
in  the  measure  of  their  capacity  and  desire  to  receive 
the  truth  concerning  himself  has  God  spoken.  Nearly 
all  of  the  historic  nations  have  had  their  great  teachers 
whose  utterances  to  their  age  have  carried  messages 
truly  divine.  The  customs  and  aptitudes  of  different 
peoples  have  given  many  diverse  developments  to  their 
religions.  In  some  cases — in  most  cases,  indeed — the 
popular  faith  and  practice  have  been  mixed  with  such 
gross  alloy  of  error  as  to  make  impossible  any  general 
and  high  religious  attainment  among  the  people. 

In  Greece,  for  instance,  the  moral  perception  and 
teaching  of  both  Socrates  and  Plato  were  such  as  worthily 
to  rank  them  among  the  great  prophets  of  the  race. 
But  there  was  something  in  the  polytheistic  atmosphere, 
and  in  the  moral  habits  of  Greece,  cultured  as  it  was, 
which  made  it  impossible  to  develop  in  Attica  under 
the  prophetic  leadership  of  a  Plato,  even  had  he  been 
an  Elijah,  the  high  type  of  religion  which  was  evoked 
in  Judea  under  the  moral  inspiration  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  Judea  in  the  creations  of  intellect  and  of 
art  bears  no  comparison  with  Attica;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,    the   intellectual   glories   of   Greece   shrink  when 


52         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

compared  with  the  worth  of  the  moral  heritage  which 
Judea  bequeathed  to  mankind. 

While,  then,  there  is  left  no  room  for  doubt  that  the 
religion  whose  history  and  inspirations  are  furnished  in 
the  Bible  is  the  highest  and  most  valuable  of  which 
the  world  has  knowledge,  yet  the  study  of  comparative 
religions  not  only  emphasizes  the  fundamental  fact  of 
man's  common  religious  nature,  but  serves  to  impress 
upon  the  discerning  missionary  worker  the  wisdom  of 
carefully  seeking  a  common  standing-ground  of  convic- 
tion from  which  he  may  lead  the  pagan  worshiper  to 
the  perception  and  embrace  of  the  better  faith.  It  is 
not  the  first  function  of  the  Christian  missionary  to 
seek  either  to  deny  or  to  destroy  the  truths  of  pagan 
faiths,  but  to  recognize  and  to  utilize  them  as  conditions 
of  more  surely  winning  the  subjects  of  these  faiths  to 
the  acceptance  of  the  more  perfect  revelation. 

There  have  been  some  dark  chapters  in  the  beliefs 
of  people  of  the  more  enlightened  religions  with  reference 
to  God's  assumed  discrimination  in  his  dealings  with 
the  human  family.  The  ancient  Jew  confirmed  him- 
self in  the  belief  that  he  of  all  humanity  was  God's 
elect  and  favorite  son,  that  he  was  to  be  the  inheritor 
of  a  paradise  from  which  all  other  races  were  to  be 
excluded.  In  more  recent  times  the  Papal  Church  has 
held  the  ban  of  mortal  fear  over  entire  nations  by  its 
pretense  of  holding  the  sole  custody  of  the  keys  to 
human  salvation.  And,  in  the  general  Christian  view, 
the  conviction  has  largely  been  held  that  the  nations 
outside  the  pale  of  Christendom  were  shut  up  to  the 
hopeless  doom  of  divine  rejection.  All  such  views,  in 
the   light   of   our  larger  knowledge   of  man's   religious 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE  53 

nature,  and  under  the  prompting  of  better  conceptions 
of  God's  method  with  his  world,  are  now  more  than 
ever  felt  to  be  in  themselves  most  religiously  provincial, 
inherently  improbable,  and  unworthy  the  character  of 
the  Divine  Father.  Peter,  under  the  special  illumina- 
tion of  the  heavenly  vision,  was  so  far  lifted  away  from 
his  Jewish  narrowness  as  to  declare:  "Of  a  truth  I  per- 
ceive that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons:  but  in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  him,  and  worketh  righteousness, 
is  accepted  with  him."  To  Peter  this  judgment  came 
as  a  revelation.  Through  the  modern  study  of  com- 
parative religions  this  same  judgment  is  brought  home 
in  wide  and  rational  confirmation  to  Christian  thought. 

ARCHAEOLOGY 

The  study  of  archaeology  has  within  the  last  half 
century  contributed  vastly  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
ancient  civilizations.  Strictly  speaking,  this  science  has 
had  its  entire  development  within  the  last  hundred 
years.  The  ancient  classical  literatures,  as  long  known 
to  the  world,  may  in  part  serve  the  ends  of  archaeological 
search;  but  the  art  of  translating,  for  instance,  the 
hieroglyphics  on  the  monuments  of  Egypt  and  the 
cuneiform  tablets  excavated  from  the  sites  of  ancient 
cities  in  Mesopotamia  is  all  of  very  recent  date.  In 
late  times  it  has  been  discovered  that  wherever  any 
great  civilization,  however  long  now  extinct,  has  flour- 
ished, there  man  has  left  records  which  interpreted  will 
portray  to  us  the  mental  and  social  qualities  of  the 
people,  the  institutions,  civil  and  religious,  of  the  ages 
which  they  represent.  This  science  has  greatly  revised 
and  enlarged  the  scope  of  historic  measurements.     Until 


54        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

within  a  very  recent  period  nothing  has  practically  been 
known  of  ancient  Babylon,  Assyria,  and  Egypt  save 
as  contained  in  the  records  of  the  ancient  classics  and 
the  Bible.  Archaeology  has  so  resurrected  these  old 
civilizations  as  to  give  to  the  modern  scholar  a  vivid 
and  rich  reproduction  of  the  very  lives  of  their  peoples, 
their  laws,  their  governments,  their  social  and  religious 
customs.  Not  only  this,  but  it  has  pushed  the  dates 
of  these  civilizations  far  back  into  the  ages.  Against 
the  background  of  a  rich  prehistoric  age,  dateless  in 
its  duration,  Egypt  presents  a  continuous  history  of 
seven  thousand  years,  all  its  periods  abundantly  tested 
by  archaeological  records.  The  Babylonian  civilization, 
probably  not  younger  than  that  of  Egypt,  seems  also 
to  be  proven  as  the  fountain-source  of  the  world's  oldest 
art,  law,  and  religion. 

In  the  language  of  Professor  Driver:  "Thus  the  last 
century  has  witnessed  what  is  virtually  the  rediscovery 
and  reconstruction  of  two  entire  civilizations,  each 
beginning  in  an  almost  incalculable  antiquity,  and  each 
presenting  a  highly  organized  society,  possessing  well- 
developed  institutions,  literature  and  art,  and  each 
capable  of  being  followed,  with  gaps,  indeed,  in  parts, 
but  in  other  parts  with  remarkable  completeness,  through 
many  centuries  of  a  varied  and  eventful  history.  And 
whereas  eighty  years  ago  little  was  known  of  either 
nation  beyond  what  was  stated  incidentally  in  the  Old 
Testament,  or  by  classical  writers,  now  voluminous 
works  descriptive  of  both  are  being  constantly  written 
and  are  quickly  left  behind  by  the  progress  of  discovery." 

Syria  lies  between  the  territories  of  Babylon  and  of 
Egypt.     Its   lands,   long   before   the  age   of  Abraham, 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE  55 

were  frequently  the  scenes  of  the  migrations  and  the 
camping-grounds  of  both  these  kingdoms.  Indeed,  both 
of  these  nations  were  old  when  as  yet  the  Hebrew  nation 
was  unborn.  It  would  not  be  reasonable  to  assume 
that  the  Hebrew  people  would  not  be  largefy  the  inher- 
itors, and  greatly  to  their  own  shaping,  of  the  culture, 
the  customs,  and  the  laws  of  these  older  civilizations. 
Of  the  facts  in  the  case,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
note,  archasology  has  much  to  say. 

BIBLICAL  CRITICISM 

The  science  of  biblical  criticism,  as  we  now  know  it, 
is  also  quite  fully  a  development  of  recent  thought. 
Indeed,  the  mental  conditions  which  could  make  such 
a  science  possible  did  not  exist  until  far  within  the 
eighteenth  century.  For  many  centuries  prior  to  that 
time  the  Bible,  so  far  as  the  people  were  concerned, 
had  been  in  the  keeping  of  an  "infallible"  Church.  It 
was  a  structure  too  sacred  to  be  profaned  by  the  test- 
touch  of  science.  Its  messages  to  mankind  could  be 
safely  given  only  through  a  priestly  interpreter.  It  is 
true  that  before  this  period  the  Bible  in  Germany  and 
in  England  had  come,  through  various  versions,  much 
into  the  hands  of  the  people.  But  even  so,  the  heritage 
of  tradition  rested  heavily  upon  its  pages.  If  Luther 
and  his  successors  in  the  Reformation  appealed  from 
the  Church  to  the  Bible,  this  appeal  practically  resulted 
in  the  installment  by  Protestantism  of  an  infallible 
Book  in  the  place  of  an  infallible  Church.  The  inductive 
philosophy  was  still  in  its  infancy.  Its  application  to 
literary  processes  was  only  as  yet  partial.  The  intel- 
lectual conditions  were  not  ripe  for  the  birth  of  new 


56        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

methods  of  Bible  study.  These  conditions  came  to 
expression  in  the  tempers  of  the  eighteenth-century 
thought.  In  this  century  the  traditions  of  the  past, 
however  hoary,  went  largely  into  bankruptcy.  The 
mind  of  this  century  broke  with  the  past.  The  eight- 
eenth-century thinker  stood  with  his  face  to  the  future. 
The  new  mental  movement  was  not  priestly  in  its  origin. 
It  was  characteristically  a  movement  of  the  lay  mind, 
a  temper  in  which  the  layman  first  asserted  his  rights 
of  independent  thought.  He  had  ceased  utterly  to 
believe  in  an  infallible  Church,  or  in  the  infallibility  of 
any  intellectual  oracle  of  the  past;  but  he  came  to  his 
place  with  a  great  confidence,  newly  born  within  him, 
in  the  infallibility  of  his  own  reason.  The  mental  atmos- 
phere of  this  age  was  charged  with  a  kind  of  resentment 
against  what  was  felt  to  have  been  a  vast  usurpation 
of  organized  authority  against  the  inherent  rights  of 
the  human  intellect.  This  age,  as  no  one  which  had 
preceded  it,  begot  in  the  human  soul  an  insatiate  desire 
for  truth;  it  was  the  age  in  which  there  first  came  to 
clear  consciousness  the  spirit  of  modern  science.  For 
the  first  time  really  in  history,  the  scholar,  delivered 
from  the  fetters  of  tradition,  confident  in  his  own  powers, 
felt  free  to  pursue  any  path  of  investigation  which 
might  lead  to  new  truth.  In  his  new-found  sense  of 
freedom  he  accepted  no  prohibition  as  imposed  by 
tradition.  Indeed,  if  the  mind  is  free  at  all  to  pursue 
truth,  then  it  should  be  free,  without  fear  or  favor, 
to  pursue  all  truth  to  its  last  hidings. 

This  spirit  began  a  new  critical  study  of  literature, 
of  all  literature  which  might  be  sufficiently  vital  to  claim 
critical    attention.     The    turning   of   this   critical   spirit 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CRITICAL  SCIENCE  57 

toward  the  Bible  was  not  an  exceptional  thing.  The 
Bible,  by  virtue  of  the  great  place  which  it  held  in  the 
world's  thought,  by  reason  of  its  paramount  claims 
on  the  human  soul,  invited  in  a  preeminent  degree  the 
searchlight  of  this  new  critical  spirit.  It  was  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  that  it  finally,  more  fully,  per- 
haps, than  any  other  literature,  should  undergo  the 
most  searching  and  microscopic  interrogation.  To  the 
mediaeval  view  the  mood  which  prompted  this  course 
would  seem  like  the  laying  of  profane  hands  on  the 
ark  of  the  Lord;  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  the  mood 
from  which  was  to  be  born  a  new  consecration  of  human 
reason  in  the  service  of  divine  truth,  and  by  which, 
as  never  before,  the  human  soul  should  find  freedom 
through  the  truth. 

I  am  deeply  conscious  that  I  have  only  partially 
and  very  imperfectly  sketched  the  forces  and  move- 
ments out  of  which  has  come  the  world  of  modern 
thought.  I  must  believe,  however,  that  no  one  can 
have  measured  the  bearings  of  facts  so  far  indicated 
without  being  in  some  degree  prepared  not  only  for 
new  methods  of  dealing  with  truth,  but  as  well  for 
great  revisions  of  conviction  concerning  views  which 
past  generations  have  held  as  sacred  and  established. 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 


59 


Plato's  books  are  his  deepest  thought  eternized,  lifted  above  the 
changes  and  the  chances  of  the  short  Athenian  day.  Students  have 
misread  them,  carrying  into  them  their  own  wisdom  and  ignorance, 
making  Plato  speak  a  language  widely  different  from  his  own.  But 
only  for  a  while.  Sooner  or  later  a  great  book  becomes  its  own  inter- 
preter. Pressing  steadily  upon  the  minds  of  those  who  love  it,  it 
creates  at  last  a  true  taste  for  itself.  The  price  the  world  has  to  pay 
for  ownership  of  a  great  book  is  the  labor  of  understanding  it.  And 
no  matter  how  long  the  payment  of  the  debt  may  be  put  off,  sooner  or 
later  it  must  be  paid  to  the  uttermost  farthing. 

So  it  has  been  with  our  Scriptures.  Because  the  Church  of  an 
earlier  time  saw  in  them  a  value  incomparable,  and  felt  in  them  a 
power  of  God  not  to  be  withstood,  she  canonized  them,  made  of  them 
a  Bible.  And  because  the  Church  of  our  day,  the  selfsame  Church, 
but  living  under  changed  conditions  and  facing  new  tasks,  has  the 
selfsame  reverence  for  them,  she  is  being  led  into  the  paths  of  criti- 
cism. In  all  this  mental  movement  the  Bible  does  not  play  a  passive 
part.     It  is  its  own  keeper. — Professor  Henry  S.  Nash. 


60 


CHAPTER  V 

SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

Biblical  criticism,  in  its  very  name,  is  to  many  a 
subject  of  exceeding  sensitiveness.  In  entering  upon  its 
discussion,  while  I  shall  studiously  seek  to  keep  within 
the  consensus  of  scholarly  findings,  I  cannot  but  be 
aware  that  many  devout  souls  are  utterly  unprepared 
by  their  own  examination  of  the  questions  at  issue  to 
be  much  in  sympathy  with  the  subject  itself.  It  is 
largely  in  the  interests  of  such  persons  that  I  am  prompted 
to  write.  I  could  greatly  covet  the  ability  so  to  pre- 
sent to  these  the  truth,  truth  which  I  am  sure  must 
finally  win  for  itself  undisputed  authority,  as  in  no  way 
to  disturb  the  restfulness  of  their  faith.  I  may  not, 
perhaps,  hope  to  succeed  according  to  my  desire.  To 
any  critical  observer  it  is  evident  that  in  matters  of 
faith  most  people  are  much  under  the  influence  of  tra- 
ditional inheritance.  Within  limits  this  is  healthful.  It 
is  possible  to  err  in  too  great  a  readiness  to  receive 
new  thought.  An  old  faith  should  not  be  abandoned 
save  for  the  best  of  reasons.  No  one  should  prodigally 
throw  away  convictions  which  he  regards  as  valuable. 
But  the  truth  seems  to  be  that  a  majority  even  of  the 
religious  convictions  popularly  held  are  not  such  as 
have  resulted  from  independent  and  painstaking  thought 
put  forth  by  persons  themselves  holding  such  convic- 
tions. The  opinions  to  which  many  most  stubbornly 
adhere,  and  in  defense  of  which  professing  saints  some- 
times too  readily  lose  their  tempers,  are  simply  ready- 

0i 


62        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

made  articles  which  have  been  passed  from  the  hands 
of  others,  and  which  have  cost  their  possessors  neither 
sweat  of  brain  nor  struggle  of  soul.  I  do  not,  of  course, 
intend  to  assume  that  all  individuals  should  be  counted 
as  competent  safely  to  elaborate  their  own  creeds.  We 
are  all  more  or  less  dependent,  and  rightly  so,  upon 
the  teaching  agency  of  the  Church  for  safe  exposition 
for  both  faith  and  conduct.  The  difficulty  is  that 
very  many  fail  to  make  rational  discrimination  as  to 
the  assets  of  their  faith.  In  the  inventory  of  their 
beliefs  they  emphasize  much  that  does  not  partake  of 
vital  truth.  Their  habit  of  mind  is  to  attach  a  first 
importance  to  the  nonessential  thing.  Having  accepted 
the  teachings  of  their  fathers,  if  called  upon  by  the 
advance  of  enlightened  thought  to  surrender  one  of 
these  nonessentials,  they  leap  nervously  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  whole  structure  of  their  Christian  belief 
is  about  to  fall. 

We  cannot  prevent  this  habit  of  mind.  It  is  per- 
sistent, and  it  does  not  characterize  lay  thought  alone. 
There  are  many  set  in  places  of  the  leader  and  the  teacher 
in  Zion  whose  mental  fixity  seems  to  give  no  place  of 
hospitality  to  new  ideas.  It  is  at  least  pathetic,  not 
to  say  reprehensible,  for  men  who  stand  in  high  places 
as  religious  teachers  not  to  be  in  this  day  respectably 
familiar  with  the  trends  of  critical  scholarship  as  in- 
volved in  the  modern  historical  study  of  the  Bible. 
Yet  it  sometimes  happens  that  even  the  pulpit  makes 
use,  for  instance,  of  the  term  "higher  criticism"  in  such 
manner  and  relations  as  to  betray  the  fact  that  its 
user  has  no  adequate  understanding  of  the  phrase  which 
he  so  easily  utters. 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  63 

It  may  be  admitted  that  there  is  a  temptation  to 
the  weak  man  sometimes  to  exploit  himself  in  this  way. 
It  is  a  trick  of  the  cheap  orator,  whose  eloquence  thrives 
on  fallacies,  to  appeal  to  the  popular  prejudice.  This 
often  makes  it  easy  for  the  vociferous  defender  of  the 
merely  traditional  to  command  for  the  time  the  ap- 
plause of  the  crowd.  And  it  must  be  admitted  that 
this  man  is  not  a  pleasant  personality  in  the  situation. 
While  he  justly  merits  for  himself  the  contempt  of  the 
surefooted  scholar,  yet  with  the  popular  jury  his  in- 
solence and  craft  are  quite  likely  to  secure  a  temporary 
verdict  as  against  the  knowledge  of  the  scholar.  Truth, 
however,  in  the  long  run,  is  sure  to  find  its  own  vindica- 
tion as  against  all  comers.  The  questions  at  issue  are 
not  such  as  can  be  decided  by  popular  vote.  They 
are  questions  for  scholarship,  and  scholarship  can  afford 
to  be  patient.  In  all  discussions  of  thought  and  of 
criticism  the  voice  of  the  scholar  is  finally  decisive. 

One  should  not  be  deterred  from  the  pursuit  of  truth 
through  fear  of  disturbing  traditional  thought.  Truth 
has  always  been  a  disturber  in  just  the  proportion  in 
which  it  has  brought  new  messages  for  the  revision  and 
enrichment  of  society.  Every  forward  movement  which 
truth  has  led  has  meant  the  break-up  and  abandon- 
ment of  old  camping-grounds  of  faith.  Multitudes  of 
good  people  are  disturbed  and  much  put  about  every 
time  civilization  moves  on  and  up  to  a  better  plane 
of  realization  and  of  thought.  This  is  a  part  of  the 
price  which  must  be  paid  for  true  advancement.  But 
advancement  in  the  right  direction,  at  whatever  cost, 
is  immeasurably  preferable  to  stagnation.  It  is  better 
for  the  individual  that  he  be  disturbed,  irritated,  stim- 


64        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

ulated  by  the  truth  than  that  he  be  content  to  live 
and  die  in  error. 

The  part  that  the  individual  promoter  of  new  truth 
has  to  play  in  disturbing  old  belief  may,  in  this  respect, 
be  quite  out  of  harmony  with  what  he  himself  could 
wish.  Dr.  George  Salmon,  late  provost  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  author  of  The  Human  Element  in 
the  Gospels,  forcibly  describes  his  feelings  as  follows: 
"Feeling  myself  to  be  quite  free  from  bias,  I  was  will- 
ing to  try  what  the  result  would  be  of  an  impartial 
investigation  of  the  composition  of  New  Testament 
books,  conducted  with  a  complete  independence  of 
traditional  opinion,  as  has  been  obtained  in  the  case 
of  the  Old  Testament.  My  notion  was  to  take  the 
three  Synoptic  Gospels,  and,  putting  aside  all  Church 
doctrines  as  to  their  inspiration  or  authority,  discuss 
their  mutual  relations  as  a  mere  question  of  criticism, 
just  as  if  they  had  been  newly  discovered  documents 
of  whose  history  we  knew  nothing.  I  do  not  think 
that  when  I  undertook  this  task  I  had  fully  understood 
what  a  sacrifice  of  previous  sentiment  it  involved.  .  .  . 
For  my  own  feelings,  the  books  of  the  Gospels  had  a 
sacredness  which  Old  Testament  books  had  not;  and 
it  was  painful  to  me  to  lay  aside  those  feelings  of  rev- 
erence which  had  hitherto  deterred  me  from  too  minute 
investigation.  I  felt  as  if  I  had  been  set  to  make  a 
dissection  of  the  body  of  my  mother;  and  could  not 
feel  that  the  scientific  value  of  the  results  I  might  obtain 
would  repay  me  for  the  painful  shock  resulting  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  task." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  feeling  thus  vividly 
described  by  Dr.  Salmon  has  been  that  of  many  another 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  65 

reverent  investigator  in  the  field  of  biblical  criticism. 
But  the  scholar  would  be  less  than  loyal  to  himself, 
and  unworthy  a  place  among  real  truth-seekers,  if  in 
the  spirit  of  unbiased  investigation  he  should  do  less 
than  to  follow  wherever  truth  should  lead. 

It  is,  of  course,  well  known  that  this  has  not  always 
been  the  spirit  of  some  who  have  engaged  in  critical 
biblical  study.  Some  have  entered  this  field  with  a 
destructive  purpose  only  in  view.  The  atheist,  the 
infidel,  and  the  agnostic  have  sought  from  their  various 
standpoints,  and  in  the  role  of  critics,  to  destroy  the 
Bible.  Others  have  approached  this  study  so  far  under 
the  bias  of  preconceived  notions  as  to  unfit  them  for 
judicial  processes.  Still  others  have  entered  upon  this 
work  for  the  sole  purpose  of  supporting  their  own  the- 
ories. The  spirit  of  none  of  these  is  truly  scientific. 
But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  after  a  century  and  a  half  of 
investigation,  and  in  spite  of  all  results  contributed 
by  hostile,  prejudiced,  and  incompetent  critics,  there 
has  been  reached  a  consensus  of  reverent,  scholarly,  and 
Christian  conclusions  on  many  certainly,  perhaps  on 
most,  of  the  vital  questions  of  biblical  criticism.  With 
the  essential  features  of  this  consensus  the  scholars 
of  Germany,  England,  and  America  are  in  agreement. 
Of  the  three  countries  named,  the  scholarship  of  America 
has  been  more  tardy  in  working  to  its  findings  than  that 
of  either  of  the  other  nations ;  but  the  facts  underlying  the 
field  of  this  critical  work  are  such  as  to  compel  substantial 
unanimity  in  conclusions  reached.  The  process  will  con- 
tinue, adding  new  results  with  possibly  minor  revisions  here 
and  there,  but  the  verdict  on  main  lines  already  reached 
by  critical  scholarship  is  not  likely  to  be  reversed. 


66        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

I  pass  now  to  some  consideration  of  the  necessity  of 
the  critical  process  as  applied  to  the  Bible.  The  need 
was  absolute.  It  inhered  both  in  the  processes  of 
modern  thought  and  in  the  most  urgent  claims  due 
to  the  Bible  itself.  The  movement  of  biblical  criticism 
was  in  any  event  inevitable.  If  it  had  been  possible 
for  the  entire  Christian  Church  to  set  itself  in  a  mood 
of  indifference  and  inaction  toward  the  question,  the 
movement  would  have  gone  on  without  the  Church. 
The  Bible,  however  divine,  was  at  least  a  historic  pro- 
duction. By  so  far  it  was  subject  to  investigation. 
As  a  supreme  book  in  the  world's  religions,  it  would 
as  certainly  as  that  the  seas  attract  the  rivers  attract 
to  itself  the  newly  awakened  spirit  of  critical  inquiry. 
The  most  ultra  traditionalist  might  just  as  sensibly 
quarrel  with  a  sunrise  as  to  quarrel  with  this  tendency 
of  thought.  The  movement  was  both  inevitable  and 
irresistible. 

But  for  another  and  very  different  reason  than  that 
it  was  inevitable  as  the  expression  of  a  new  awakening 
of  thought  can  the  devout  mind  welcome  and  accept 
the  movement  of  biblical  criticism.  It  is  a  movement 
ordained  of  Providence.  The  processes  of  history  had 
slowly  prepared  Christian  thought  to  receive  its  true 
and  larger  heritage  in  the  Bible  as  a  supreme  revelation 
of  God  to  man.  A  fact  which  seems  to  have  been  little 
apprehended  by  many  Christian  apologists  is  that  the 
Bible  is  abundantly  able  to  take  care  of  itself.  In  the 
entire  history  of  discussion  as  centering  in  the  Bible 
it  has  been  invariable  that  the  voice  of  any  new  prophet 
of  progress,  or  the  coming  in  of  a  new  learning,  has 
been  greeted  by  whole  schools  with  protest.     Scholars 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  67 

in  numbers  have  unconsciously  urged  their  own  views, 
traditional  or  otherwise,  as  synonymous  with  the  values 
and  integrity  of  the  Bible  itself.  And  on  the  approach 
of  any  new  view  these  same  scholars  have  sprung  to 
the  defense  of  their  own  notions  as  though  they  felt 
themselves  the  very  saviours  and  champions  of  divine 
revelation.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  zealously  affected 
in  a  good  cause.  I  do  not  intend  to  depreciate  the 
legitimate  function  and  usefulness  of  the  apologist. 
But  I  believe  that  there  are  some  things  in  his  world 
of  which  God  himself  is  the  guardian.  The  Bible  is 
one  of  them.  I  believe  that  the  Bible  itself  is  immeas- 
urably larger  and  more  divine  than  the  best  thought 
of  its  ablest  human  defenders.  The  Bible  will  survive 
when  whole  bodies  of  human  views  concerning  it  shall 
have  perished.  It  will  be  vastly  more  luminous  and 
serviceable  to  mankind  when  its  full  character  and 
message  shall  finally  be  stripped  of  the  intellectual 
rubbish  which  human  interpreters  have  imposed  upon 
it.  The  Bible  lives  because  it  is  God's  Book.  He 
takes  care  of  it.  I  fear  that  this  fact  of  God's  guardian- 
ship of  the  Bible  has  not  always  had  its  due  place  of 
honor  in  Christian  thought. 

The  following  are  significant  facts.  It  may  be  said 
that  prior  to  the  rise  of  modern  criticism  the  Bible, 
as  we  now  have  it,  had  passed  two  distinct  eras  in  its 
history.  The  one  was  that  which  established  its  canon- 
icity;  the  other,  that  in  which  for  many  centuries  it 
was  under  the  keeping  and  interpretation  of  a  centralized 
and  authoritative  Church.  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  to 
overstate  the  values  to  the  Christian  world  as  related 
to  the  Bible  of  one  or  both  of  these  periods. 


68         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

The  placing  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
a  canonical  group,  and  the  same  service  as  afterward 
rendered  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  thus 
finally  making  one  Bible  of  the  two  Testaments,  were 
no  haphazard  processes.  The  procedure  in  both  cases 
was  human,  and,  therefore,  not  infallible.  With  ref- 
erence to  the  Old  Testament,  the  Jews  of  Alexandria 
would  have  included  all  or  most  of  the  books  of  the 
Apocrypha  in  the  canon.  These  books  the  Jews  of 
Palestine  rejected.  The  selection  of  the  canon  of  the 
New  Testament  was  a  far  more  critical  problem  than 
that  of  the  older  Testament.  This  canon  had  to  be 
sifted  from  a  great  volume  of  Christian  writings.  There 
were  extant  in  the  period  of  the  making  of  this  canon 
many  Gospels  and  Epistles  claiming  apostolic  authority. 
The  process  was,  in  its  own  way,  as  critical  in  its  search 
for  authentic  writings  as  any  which  has  taken  place 
under  the  modern  higher  criticism.  The  test  of  any 
writing  to  be  admitted  to  the  Testament  was  its  identity 
as  of  true  apostolic  authorship.  There  were  many 
claims  which  it  was  difficult  to  decide.  There  was 
never  absolute  unanimity  with  reference  to  them  all. 

But  after  a  review  of  all  the  centuries  it  would  seem 
that  the  human  selections  which  resulted  in  the  vol- 
umes of  Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures  as  we  now 
have  them  were  as  fully  decided  by  the  Divine  Spirit 
as  were  ever  any  decisions  of  men  charged  with  the 
settlement  of  high  questions.  A  fact  of  marvelous 
significance,  a  significance  beyond  mere  human  measure- 
ment, is  that  these  various  Scriptures,  the  product  of 
many  centuries  and  of  most  diverse  authorship,  and 
against    severe    challenge    at    every    gateway    of    their 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  69 

passage,  got  themselves  at  last  assembled  in  a  book 
which,  under  the  auspices  and  decision  of  men  most 
spiritually  enlightened,  is  stamped  as  containing  God's 
most  perfect  revelation  of  himself  to  mankind.  If 
there  be  than  this  a  more  signal  evidence  of  the  divine 
overruling  in  human  thought,  that  is  something  of 
which  I  do  not  know. 

Nor  are  we  less  impressed  with  the  divine  guardian- 
ship of  the  Bible  if  we  study  the  history  of  its  preserva- 
tion through  the  mediaeval  ages.  Europe  for  centuries 
was  disorganized,  its  cities  had  fallen  into  decay,  bar- 
baric conditions  prevailed  widely  throughout  its  terri- 
tories, culture  was  a  lost  art.  The  one  power  which 
made  itself  everywhere  felt  was  the  Church.  The  Church 
itself  shared  largely  in  the  common  downfall.  Scholarship 
had  pretty  much  departed  from  its  ranks.  Very  few 
in  its  priesthood  or  in  its  cloisters  could  read  the  original 
languages  in  which  the  Bible  was  written.  Its  priests 
were  generally  ignorant,  often  brutal  and  immoral.  The 
period  was  one  of  turbulence,  of  feuds,  and  of  blood. 
But  through  all  these  dark  centuries  the  Church  safely 
guarded  the  Bible.  Whatever  else  might  perish,  this 
Book  was  not  permitted  to  perish.  It  was  cherished 
as  a  divine  thing,  guarded  as  the  most  sacred  treasure. 

The  Church  was  not  always  a  good  expounder,  its 
chief  pastors  were  often  grossly  untrue  to  their  high 
offices,  but  the  best  lessons  which  it  taught  were  from 
the  Bible,  and  from  this  Book  it  derived  the  sanction 
of  that  wonderful  authority,  on  the  whole  a  beneficent 
authority,  which  it  wielded  over  those  barbaric  ages. 
The  emphasis  must  be  placed  on  the  fact  that  through 
these  long  ages  of  anarchy,  of  confusion  and  ruin,  the 


7o        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Bible  was  preserved.  The  Church  which  accepted  the 
Bible  as  its  supreme  law  was  the  one  government  which 
did  not  perish.  Surely,  God  was  standing  in  that  dark 
period  "keeping  watch  above  his  own." 

There  is  another  side  to  this  ecclesiastical  custody  of 
the  Bible.  The  same  Church  which  saved  the  Scriptures 
arrogated  to  itself  the  sole  right  of  their  interpretation. 
The  theory  was  practically  that  of  an  infallible  Church 
interpreting  an  infallible  Book.  Modern  thought  rejects 
both  assumptions  of  this  theory.  The  official  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible  which  prevailed  in  the  Church 
generally  down  to  the  age  of  the  Reformation  was  one 
almost  entirely  inherited  from  the  early  Fathers — mostly 
the  Postnicene  Fathers — who  were  recognized  leaders  in 
Christian  thought  during  the  period  extending  from 
the  third  to  the  sixth  centuries.  For  an  understanding 
of  the  history  of  theological  thought  in  these  centuries 
the  study  of  the  Fathers  is  indispensable.  But  for 
the  purpose  of  a  true  understanding  of  the  Scriptures, 
as  required  by  modem  critical  standards,  this  study 
yields  largely  unsatisfactory  and  disappointing  results. 
Into  the  philosophy  of  the  Scriptures  as  held  by  most 
of  these  ancient  writers  had  entered  large  infusions 
of  pagan  thought.  In  their  interpretations  of  the  sacred 
books  they  dealt  much  in  allegorical  methods  leading 
often  to  most  fanciful  conclusions.  The  Fathers  were 
not  scientific  exegetes  of  the  Divine  Word. 

The  names  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen,  Atha- 
nasius,  and  Augustine  are  among  the  most  prominent 
of  these  early  writers.  It  may  be  said  that  the  methods 
of  biblical  interpretation  introduced  or  supported  by 
these  four  persons  were  controlling  in  the  Church  for 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  71 

a  thousand  years.  It  will  be  of  interest  to  cite  samples 
of  scriptural  interpretation  from  each  of  these  repre- 
sentative authorities.  Clement  regarded  the  Bible  as  a 
book  of  enigmas,  and  held  that  allegory  is  the  one  key 
to  unlock  its  meaning.  Speaking  of  the  positions  of 
the  utensils  in  the  tabernacle,  he  says:  "The  altar  of 
incense  placed  in  the  Holy  Place  before  the  veil  is  a 
symbol  of  the  earth  in  the  middle  of  the  universe.  The 
lamp  is  an  emblem  of  Christ,  and  its  position  on  the 
south  of  the  altar  shows  the  motion  of  the  seven  planets, 
which  performed  their  revolutions  toward  the  south. 
The  ark  signifies  the  properties  of  the  world  of  thought, 
and  the  twelve  stones  in  the  four  rows  are  the  signs 
of  the  zodiac  in  the  four  seasons." 

Origen  was  perhaps  the  foremost  Christian  scholar 
of  his  century — the  third — and  he  must  be  ranked  as 
of  most  influential  authority.  He  was  regarded  by 
many  as  the  greatest  teacher  of  the  Church  after  the 
apostolic  age.  John  the  Baptist  speaking  of  Christ  said, 
"The  latchet  of  whose  shoe  I  am  not  worthy  to  un- 
loose." Origen  says  that  John  here  confesses  his  inability 
and  unfitness  to  explain  the  mystery  of  Christ's  assum- 
ing a  human  body.  He  dwells  upon  the  fact  that  the 
Baptist  mentions  but  one  shoe,  while  elsewhere  two 
are  named.  One  shoe,  he  says,  signifies  Christ  taking 
human  flesh,  the  other  his  descent  into  Hades.  He 
mentions  but  one  because  at  the  time  he  was  in  doubt 
as  to  whether  Christ  was  to  enter  Hades.  This  inter- 
pretation is  absurdly  fanciful. 

Athanasius  became  bishop  of  Alexandria  in  the  early 
part  of  the  fourth  century.  He  had  a  varied  but  influ- 
ential career,   and  put  the  stamp  of  his  own  thought 


72         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

upon  the  theology  of  the  Church.  In  Isa.  6.  3  occurs 
the  expression,  "Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts." 
From  this  passage  Athanasius  proves  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  in  Unity.  The  fact  that  the  word  "holy" 
is  repeated  three  times  refers  to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost;  and  that  the  word  "Lord"  is  spoken  but  once 
proves  that  the  three  persons  of  the  Trinity  are  "one 
essence." 

Augustine  was  born  A.  D.  354.  No  one  of  all  the 
Fathers  wielded  a  wider  or  more  abiding  influence  upon 
the  Church  than  did  he.  His  influence  in  theology 
may  be  likened  to  that  of  Ptolemy  in  astronomy.  It 
has  been  a  powerful  force  even  to  our  own  times.  While 
believing  in  the  literal  account  of  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
he  conceded  that  the  story  might  admit  of  more  than 
one  explanation.  Thus:  "No  one  denies  that  paradise 
may  signify  the  life  of  the  blessed;  its  four  rivers,  the 
four  virtues;  its  trees,  all  useful  knowledge;  its  fruit, 
the  customs  of  the  godly;  its  tree  of  life,  wisdom  herself, 
the  mother  of  all  good;  and  the  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  the  experience  of  a  broken  command- 
ment." Or;  "Paradise  is  the  Church:  the  four  rivers 
are  the  four  Gospels;  the  fruit  trees  are  the  saints,  and 
the  fruit  their  works ;  the  tree  of  life  is  the  Holy  of  Holies, 
Christ;  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  the 
will's  free  choice."  His  interpretation  of  the  ark  is 
equally  interesting.  The  ark  is  a  figure  of  the  Church 
in  the  world  which  is  rescued  by  the  wood  on  which 
Christ  hung.  Its  dimensions  represent  the  human  body 
in  which  he  came,  the  length  of  the  body  being  six 
times  its  breadth  and  ten  times  its  depth  or  thickness. 
Therefore  the  ark  was  made  three  hundred  cubits  long, 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  73 

fifty  broad,  and  thirty  high.  The  door  in  its  side  cer- 
tainly signified  the  wound  in  the  side  of  the  Crucified 
One,  for  by  this  those  who  come  to  him  enter. 

The  instances  here  given  of  methods  of  interpretation 
by  the  Fathers  are  mere  fragments,  but  they  are  typical 
and  they  serve  to  illustrate  the  general  philosophy  of 
Scripture  interpretation  which  was  accepted  as  fully 
authoritative  in  the  mediaeval  Church.  These  interpre- 
tations would  seem  to  be  largely  grotesque  rather  than 
sober  attempts  to  explain  the  Divine  Word.  But  it 
is  not  too  strong  to  assert  that,  after  the  sixth  century 
to  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  the  writings  of  the 
Fathers  had  more  influence  in  shaping  the  thought  of 
the  Church  than  had  all  the  direct  utterances  of  Christ 
and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament. 

Coming  to  the  Reformation,  to  Wycliffe,  Huss,  Luther, 
and  the  goodly  company  of  Reformers,  it  is  evident 
that  they  all  were  under  more  or  less  bondage  to  the 
traditional  methods  of  biblical  interpretation.  The 
service  which  they  rendered  in  this  field  was  to  differen- 
tiate the  Bible  from  the  Church,  and  to  emphasize  its 
authority  as  above  and  distinct  from  that  of  popes  or 
councils.  Wycliffe  said:  "If  there  were  a  hundred 
popes,  and  if  all  friars  were  cardinals,  one  ought  not 
to  trust  them  in  matters  of  faith  except  as  they  agree 
with  Holy  Scripture."  Luther,  though  never  himself  on 
the  plane  of  interpretation  fully  emancipated  from 
mediaeval  methods,  said:  "When  God's  Word  is  ex- 
pounded and  glossed  by  the  Fathers,  it  is  as  when  one 
strains  milk  through  a  coal  sack."  Calvin  brought 
prodigious  ability  to  the  study  of  theology,  but  his 
great  defect  as  a  biblical  interpreter  was  that  he  came 


74        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

to  all  his  work  with  preconceptions.  He  used  his  great 
ability  to  fit  the  Scriptures  into  the  molds  of  ancient 
dogma. 

The  Reformers  rendered  a  priceless  service  by  trans- 
lating the  Scriptures  into  the  vernaculars  of  the  people. 
It  was  on  this  anvil  that  the  structure  of  patristic  tra- 
dition was  hopelessly  broken.  But  the  giving  of  the 
Bible  to  the  people,  while  a  great  step  toward  the 
delivering  of  the  popular  mind  and  conscience,  was 
not  all.  The  Bible  itself  needed  emancipation,  not  only 
from  the  repressions  of  a  corrupt  Church,  but  as  well 
from  inadequate  and  vicious  methods  of  interpretation. 
The  Bible,  while  marvelously  preserved  in  its  form, 
has  never,  until  quite  recently,  had  free  opportunity  to 
speak  simply  for  itself.  Indeed,  the  conditions  through 
which  it  could  make  itself  clearly  and  fully  understood 
have  never  really  existed  since  the  apostolic  age.  Protes- 
tantism, while  a  great  revolt  against  the  arrogant  claims  of 
the  Papacy,  and  while  emphasizing  the  priesthood  of  the 
people,  nevertheless  carried  over  into  itself  many  views 
of  the  Bible  which  the  fuller  knowledge  and  revised 
thought  of  the  present  very  fully  reject.  The  Reformers 
got  rid  of  an  infallible  Church,  but  they  substituted  in  its 
place  an  infallible  Bible  as  interpreted  by  the  teachings  of 
the  early  Church.  And  this  position  Protestantism  as  a 
whole,  until  within  very  recent  times,  has  accentuated. 

The  conditions  have  been  long  preparing,  and  in 
the  order  of  Providence  the  time  is  fully  ripe,  for  a 
larger  and  better  philosophy  of  the  Bible  than  either 
the  Papacy  or  Protestantism,  until  at  least  very  recently, 
has  been  prepared  to  yield.  The  new  view  does  not 
center   itself   primarily   upon   either   the   idea   of   infal- 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  75 

libility  or  inerrancy.  It  does  give  due  consideration 
to  the  properly  human  elements  which  enter  into  the 
structure  of  the  Scriptures.  It  recognizes  the  fact  that 
the  Bible  is  a  historic  literature,  and  that  by  so  much 
it  is  legitimately  subject  to  investigation.  It  recognizes 
that  however  high  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats,  and 
whatever  of  inspiration  may  inhere  in  its  record,  it 
bears  as  a  whole  and  in  every  one  of  its  books  the  impress 
of  its  human  authors.  It  recognizes  that  each  one  of 
its  books,  as  a  rule,  represents  a  historic  background 
and  a  human  environment  which  furnish  the  occasion 
for  the  very  existence  of  the  book  itself.  If  any  have 
ever  supposed  that  the  books  of  the  Bible  came  ready- 
made  from  God's  hands  into  the  hands  of  men,  the 
new  philosophy  does  not  give  hospitality  to  that  view. 
It  does,  however,  assert  the  legitimacy  of  putting  its 
searchlight  on  this  book  up  to  the  last  line  and  the 
last  point  where  human  thought  and  human  hands 
have  had  any  part  in  its  making.  The  new  view  is 
not  skeptical  about  the  divinity  of  the  book.  It  is  not 
irreverent  in  its  presence.  It  proceeds  to  its  work 
with  wide-open  and  reverent  vision.  It  has  gone  far 
enough  in  this  work  to  be  convinced  that  many  of  the 
traditional  views  of  inspiration,  and  of  inerrancy  of 
statement,  have  utterly  broken  down  under  investiga- 
tion. But  it  is  not  concerned  over  such  breakdown, 
for  it  does  not  believe  that  these  views  were  ever  a 
part  of  the  vital  or  organic  structure  of  the  book  itself. 
We  shall,  I  believe,  take  a  sane  view  of  the  modern 
critical  movement  as  related  to  the  Bible  only  when 
we  give  it  due  place  as  a  creation  of  Divine  Providence. 
The  critical  process  is  just  as  certainly  of  divine  purpose 


76        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

as  was  the  selection  and  installation  of  the  books  them- 
selves, or  the  preservation  of  their  text  in  its  integrity 
through  the  long  ages  of  intellectual  chaos.  The  Christian 
world  has  now  been  sufficiently  trained,  and  scientifically 
so,  to  let  the  Bible,  in  the  light  of  its  own  completest 
history,  simply  be  its  own  interpreter.  And  this  is 
really  all  that  modern  biblical  criticism  means.  It  is 
just  an  effort  so  to  strip  the  Bible  of  the  burdens  which 
ignorance  and  superstition  have  imposed  upon  it,  so 
to  relieve  it  from  the  attachments  with  which  traditional 
fallacies  and  false  fancies  have  surrounded  it,  that 
in  the  unclouded  light  of  its  own  true  character  it 
may  speak  direct  to  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men.  And 
this  is  what  God  wants. 

Some  might  ask,  If  the  modern  critical  study  of  the 
Bible  is  ordained  of  God,  then  why  has  the  process 
been  characterized  by  such  conflict?  Why  have  so 
many  hostile  and  destructive  minds  been  permitted  to 
exploit  themselves  in  this  work?  These  questions  should 
give  no  trouble.  Truth  has  always  won  its  way  through 
conflict.  It  is  thus  always  brought  into  clearer  ex- 
pression, and  its  values  into  larger  appreciation.  The 
history  of  conflict  shows  that  God  often  employs  the 
enemies  of  truth  to  furnish  material  for  his  own  workers. 

We  may  rest  secure  in  the  conclusion  that  if  the 
Bible  be  of  God,  then  to  it  no  harm  can  finally  come. 
It  is  just  as  secure  as  the  sun  in  the  heavens.  Also, 
if  the  Bible  be  a  divinely  inspired  revelation,  it  will 
adjustively  and  commandingly  adapt  itself  to  the  grow- 
ing intelligence  and  needs  of  mankind.  When  as  a 
boy  I  first  knew  Manhattan  Island  it  had  the  same 
topography  as  now.     It  was  separated  from  the  Jersey 


SOME  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY  77 

and  Long  Island  shores  as  now  by  the  Hudson  and 
East  Rivers.  The  only  means  of  passage  to  these 
shores  was  by  the  lumbering  ferryboat,  which  often 
had  to  feel  its  way  from  shore  to  shore  through  a  dense 
fog.  Conditions  have  greatly  changed  since  then.  Many 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  have  come  thronging 
to  the  city.  Great  new  needs  have  arisen.  The  old 
ferryboat  is  superseded.  The  East  River  is  spanned 
by  a  series  of  great  bridges,  veritable  wonders  of  engineer- 
ing, over  which  thunders  the  ceaseless  traffic  of  human 
life.  The  rivers  are  undergirded  by  great  tunnels  through 
which  is  the  constant  rush  of  human-laden  and  electric- 
sped  trains.  And  yet  to-day  Manhattan  and  Long 
Island  are  just  where  they  were  a  thousand  years  ago. 
They  have  simply  responded  to  the  marvelous  needs 
of  a  new  age. 

All  this  may  be  a  parable  of  what  modern  criticism 
means  in  reference  to  the  Bible.  It  is  simply  putting 
the  light  of  a  new  age,  of  new  knowledge,  of  new  intel- 
lectual needs,  of  new  and  imperative  demands  of  the 
soul  upon  the  book.  Changes  in  the  vision  of  the  situa- 
tion are  doubtless  sure  to  come,  have  already  come. 
But  when  the  process  shall  be  complete  the  Bible,  without 
the  removal  of  a  single  jot  or  tittle  from  its  real  integrity, 
will  be  exactly  what  it  was  a  thousand  years  ago.  The 
only  difference  will  be  that  its  approaches  will  be  by 
luminous  pathways  of  knowledge,  and,  as  the  great  city, 
it  will  be  glorious  by  day  and  beautiful  by  night. 


PERSONAL  TO  THE  READER 


79 


When  we  obey  the  modern  voice  it  is  not  because  of  the  supremacy 
of  our  individual  brain,  but  because  of  the  working  of  ten  thousand 
brains,  whose  researches  have  accumulated  facts  that  compel  our 
assent.  We  offer  not  our  personal  dictum,  but  that  of  the  humanity 
which  is  ever  growing  and  ever  learning ;  which  works  with  what  Emer- 
son calls  "the  irresistible  maturing  of  the  human  mind." — Jonathan 
Brierley. 


80 


CHAPTER  VI 
PERSONAL  TO  THE  READER 

Before  entering  upon  the  next  three  chapters,  in 
which  I  shall  undertake  to  discuss  directly  some  of 
the  phases  of  biblical  criticism,  I  desire  to  make  myself 
fully  understood.  In  matters  of  fundamental  criticism 
I  make  no  claim  as  an  original  investigator.  I  can 
only  assume  to  have  used  reverently  and  honestly  my 
own  intelligence  and  judgment  upon  such  products  of 
critical  thought  as  have  commanded  my  interest  and 
study.  In  stating  conclusions  of  a  critical  character  I 
shall  act  far  more  in  the  capacity  of  a  reporter  than 
as  an  original  investigator.  It  has  so  happened  that 
for  many  years  my  professional  life  has  been  directed 
in  channels  of  activity  which  would  not  be  generally 
thought  most  favorable  to  the  cultivation  of  scholarly 
habits.  I  gratefully  say,  however,  that  while  I  have 
always  been  a  conscientious  worker  in  my  allotted 
sphere  of  duty,  I  have  never  been  so  busy  as  to  have 
lost  interest  in,  or  to  have  failed  to  give  myself  to  enam- 
ored pursuit  of,  the  living  and  commanding  questions 
of  thought.  While  my  daily  work,  always  engrossing, 
has  been  to  me  a  joy,  I  have  always  been  prompted 
by  my  tastes  to  feel  that  there  are  few  pleasures  more 
satisfying,  or  pursuits  more  enviable,  than  those  which 
fall  to  the  privilege  of  the  scholar. 

The  questions  of  biblical  study  especially  have  for 
many  years  had  for  me  a  most  serious  and  fascinating 
interest.     From    such    study   of    these    questions    as    I 

Si 


82         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

have  been  able  to  give  there  have  come  to  me  many 
impressions,  some  of  which  have  entered  decisively  into 
my  convictions.  But  my  studies  in  biblical  criticism 
have  been  simply  such  as  any  intelligent  layman  might 
pursue  for  himself,  if  interested  in  this  field  of  investi- 
gation. It  is  simply  as  a  lay  student,  greatly  interested, 
but  claiming  no  rank  as  a  critical  authority,  that  I 
venture,  in  the  immediately  following  chapters,  to  voice 
the  opinions  of  some  scholars  whose  conclusions  have 
appealed  to  me  as  in  many  respects  both  convincing 
and  helpful.  I  would  not,  however,  wish  to  be  con- 
strued as  indorsing  in  detail  all  opinions,  which  have 
appealed  to  my  interest. 

In  making  these  statements  I  would  like  to  guard 
against  any  impression  of  having  surrendered  my  own 
right  of  judgment.  It  is  not  only  the  highest  right, 
but,  in  the  last  resort,  the  highest  duty,  for  one  to  fol- 
low his  own  convictions.  I  have,  however,  no  hesita- 
tion in  stating  the  reasons  which  have  decided  my 
conclusions.  I  have  great  respect  for  the  judgment  of 
expert  authority.  If  a  member  of  my  family  is  ill, 
I  consult  the  best  medical  skill  within  reach.  If  I  have 
to  deal  with  a  practical  question  whose  answer  requires 
an  expert  knowledge  of  the  law,  I  consult  a  trained 
lawyer.  If  I  wish  to  cross  the  oceans,  I  not  only  select 
a  stanch  and  comfortable  ship,  but  I  want  also  to  feel 
that  this  ship  is  commanded  by  a  cool-headed  captain, 
a  master  in  the  art  of  navigation.  Then,  if  a  tempest 
arises,  I  am  full  of  composure,  for  I  feel  that  on  the 
bridge  is  a  man  who  is  competent  to  manage  his  vessel 
in  the  storm.  There  are  innumerable  situations  in  life 
in  which  we  trust  to  the  judgment  of  others  rather 


PERSONAL  TO  THE  READER  83 

than  to  our  own,  and  simply  because  for  the  given 
exigency  we  recognize  that  they  have  expert  knowledge 
which  we  have  not. 

And  so,  on  general  principles,  in  a  given  department 
of  learning,  the  expert  specialist,  due  allowance  always 
being  made  for  possible  personal  bias,  is  entitled  to 
large  consideration.  His  opinions  concerning  questions 
relating  to  his  own  department  are  likely  to  be  more 
intelligent,  more  informing,  more  in  conformity  with 
the  facts  of  the  case,  than  can  be  secured  from  any 
other  source.  And  his  opinions  will  be  all  the  more 
valuable  if  he  is  recognized  as  having  exceptional  train- 
ing for  his  work,  as  having  expert  ability  for  handling 
the  particular  questions  with  which  he  has  to  deal, 
and  especially  if  his  findings  are  corroborated  by  other 
specialists  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

And  this  is  precisely  the  principle  on  which,  as  I 
believe,  the  general  consensus  of  devout  and  special 
scholarship  on  questions  of  biblical  criticism  is  entitled 
to  high  consideration.  Biblical  criticism  has  to-day 
reached  the  rank  of  a  science.  It  is  no  sporadic  move- 
ment. It  is  not  the  creation  of  a  few  speculative  intel- 
lectual adventurers.  It  is  not  in  the  hands  of  men  of 
irreverent  and  destructive  purposes.  It  represents  in 
large  measure  the  most  expert,  competent,  painstaking, 
and  conscientious  scholarship  of  the  age.  And  this 
scholarship,  moreover,  as  represented  in  far  and 
near  centers  of  learning,  stands  in  remarkable  agree- 
ment in  many  great  conclusions  reached  in  this  field 
of  investigation. 

For  instance,  the  "documentary  theory"  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  well-nigh  universally  accepted  by  recog- 


84        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

nized  authorities  in  Old  Testament  literature.  This 
theory,  elsewhere  discussed,  asserts  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  the  literary  form  in  which  we  now  have  it  is 
originally  compiled  from  at  least  four  different  preexisting 
sources,  and  that  by  distinct  individuals,  or  schools, 
and  through  different  ages,  these  sources  have  been 
combined,  edited,  and  finally  brought  together  in  the 
form  and  order  in  which  we  now  have  the  books.  Old 
Testament  scholarship  is  so  generally  agreed  upon 
this  hypothesis  as  to  make  it  safe  to  say  that  within 
the  last  two  decades  there  has  not  been  produced  a 
single  accredited  Bible  dictionary,  commentary,  or  text- 
book— works  already  very  generally  in  the  hands  of 
studious  ministers  and  Sunday  school  teachers — which 
does  not  either  defend  or  assume  its  truth.  The  theory, 
if  carefully  studied  in  its  bearings,  must,  it  would  seem, 
commend  itself  to  any  thoughtful  mind1  as  not  only 
elucidating  many  of  the  narratives,  but  as  the  key  which 
explains  the  very  evident  duplicate  form  of  much  of 
Old  Testament  literature.  Dr.  George  H.  Gilbert,  in 
his  recent  work  on  Interpretation  of  the  Bible,  says: 
"The  critical  method,  though  spoken  against  and  forcibly 
opposed,  has  been  accepted  by  the  author  of  nearly 
every  marked  contribution  to  biblical  interpretation  dur- 
ing the  past  three  decades  in  all  Protestant  lands." 
To  say  nothing  of  Germany  and  other  continental 
countries,  it  will  hardly  admit  of  challenge  that  the 
critical  method  is  that  under  which  all  the  chairs  of 
Hebrew  in  the  great  universities,  evangelical  and  other, 
of  England  and  America  are  doing  their  work.  It  is 
due  to  say  that  the  composite  character  of  the  Synop- 
tical Gospels  of  the  New  Testament  is  just  as  certainly 


PERSONAL  TO  THE  READER  85 

proven  and  as  universally  accepted  in  the  world  of 
biblical  scholarship  as  is  the  documentary  theory  for 
the  Old  Testament. 

There  is  altogether  too  much  coincidence  and  sig- 
nificance in  this  unanimity  to  admit  of  its  being  passed 
by  in  silence  or  thoughtlessly  set  aside.  The  critical 
movement  in  biblical  study,  if  it  should  measure  nothing 
more,  is  of  sufficient  volume  and  is  supported  by  so 
great  weight  of  scholarship  as  at  least  to  entitle  it  to 
most  respectful  study  as  an  intellectual  phenomenon  of 
the  age. 

It  is  important  not  to  mistake  the  true  function  of 
"higher  criticism."  Much  in  popular  thought  is  loosely 
attributed  to  this  method  which  does  not  belong  to 
it  at  all.  President  King  has  thus  defined  its  scope: 
"Positively,  higher  criticism  may  be  defined  as  a  care- 
ful historical  and  literary  study  of  a  book  to  determine 
its  unity,  age,  authorship,  literary  form,  and  reliability. 
In  the  determination  of  these  problems,  account  is 
taken  of  the  historical  references  contained  in  the  book, 
of  the  style  of  the  book,  of  the  opinions  expressed  in 
it,  of  the  citations  made  in  it,  and  of  the  testimony 
(or  lack  of  testimony)  to  this  book  found  in  other  books 
of  acknowledged  authority,  where  some  reference  might 
be  expected.  The  higher  criticism  of  the  book  is  thus, 
in  the  main,  simply  a  painstaking  study  of  the  book 
itself  to  get  at  the  facts  about  it." 

This  process  is  certainly  legitimate.  It  is  a  method 
applied  to  the  Bible  just  as  a  scientific  method  might 
be  applied  to  nature,  for  the  purpose  simply  and  only 
of  ascertaining  not  what  somebody  thinks  the  Bible 
ought  to  say,  but  exactly  what  it  does  say.     Reduced 


86         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

to  a  last  definition,  the  one  and  only  function  of  higher 
criticism  proper  is  to  give  to  the  Bible  the  most  unob- 
structed opportunity,  without  gloss  or  comment,  to 
reveal  to  the  reader  its  own  truth,  to  tell  its  own  di- 
vine story. 

Higher  criticism  in  its  real  mission  works  no  such 
havoc  with  truth  as  many  have  fearfully  imagined. 
Canon  Driver,  regius  professor  of  Hebrew  in  Oxford 
University,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament, 
speaking  of  effects  of  the  critical  process  upon  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  Old  Testament,  says:  "It  is  not  the  case 
that  critical  conclusions,  such  as  those  expressed  in 
the  present  volume,  are  in  conflict  either  with  the  Christian 
creeds  or  with  the  articles  of  Christian  faith.  Those 
conclusions  affect  not  the  fact  of  revelation,  but  only 
its  form.  They  help  to  determine  the  stages  through 
which  it  passed,  the  different  phases  which  it  assumed, 
and  the  process  by  which  the  record  of  it  was  built  up. 
They  do  not  touch  either  the  authority  or  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament.  They 
imply  no  change  in  respect  to  the  divine  attributes 
revealed  in  the  Old  Testament;  no  change  in  the  lessons 
of  human  duty  to  be  derived  from  it;  no  change  as  to 
the  general  position  (apart  from  the  interpretation  of 
particular  passages)  that  the  Old  Testament  points 
forward  prophetically  to  Christ.  That  both  the  religion 
of  Israel  itself,  and  the  record  of  its  history  embodied 
in  the  Old  Testament,  are  the  work  of  men  whose  hearts 
have  been  touched  and  minds  illuminated,  in  different 
degrees,  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  manifest ;  but  the  recog- 
nition of  this  truth  does  not  decide  the  question  of 
the  author  by  whom,  or  the  date  at  which,  particular 


PERSONAL  TO  THE  READER  87 

parts  of  the  Old  Testament  were  committed  to  writing; 
nor  does  it  determine  the  precise  literary  character 
of  a  given  narrative  or  book." 

Professor  Briggs,  certainly  a  high  authority,  says: 
"Higher  criticism  has  not  contravened  any  decision  of 
any  Christian  council,  or  any  creed  of  any  Church,  or 
any  statement  of  Scripture  itself." 

The  advent  of  higher  criticism  and  its  activity  in 
the  field  of  the  Bible  were,  as  has  already  been  empha- 
sized, inevitable.  The  spirit  of  literary  criticism  once 
enthroned  in  the  seats  of  scholarship,  it  were  puerile 
to  assume  that  the  greatest  and  most  phenomenal 
book  in  human  possession  would  not  at  once  present 
itself  as  a  most  inviting  and  fruitful  field  of  investigation. 
On  this  subject  Principal  Fairbairn,  one  of  the  most 
luminous  and  helpful  of  modern  Christian  writers,  says: 
"If  scientific  scholarship  be  legitimate,  the  higher  criti- 
cism cannot  be  forbidden — the  two  have  simply  moved 
pari  passu.  Hebrew  language  became  another  thing  in 
the  hands  of  Gesenius  from  what  it  had  been  in  the 
hands  of  Parkhurst;  the  genius  of  Ewald  made  it  a 
still  more  living  and  mobile  and  significant  thing.  The 
discoveries  in  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia  have  made 
forgotten  empires  and  lost  literatures  rise  out  of  their 
graves  to  elucidate  Hebrew  history  and  literature.  A 
more  intimate  knowledge  of  Oriental  man  and  nature, 
due  to  personal  acquaintance  with  them,  has  qualified 
scholars  the  better  to  read  and  understand  the  Semitic 
minds.  A  more  accurate  knowledge  of  ancient  ver- 
sions, combined  with  a  more  scientific  archaeology,  and 
a  clearer  insight  into  the  intellectual  tendencies  and 
religious  methods  of  the  old  world,  especially  in  their 


88         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

relation  to  literary  activity  and  composition,  has  enabled 
the  student  to  apply  new  and  more  certain  canons  to 
all  that  concerns  the  formation  of  books  and  texts. 
The  growth  of  skilled  interpretation,  exercised  and 
illustrated  in  many  fields,  has  accustomed  men  to  the 
study  of  literature  and  history  together,  showing  how 
the  literature  lived  through  the  people  and  the  people 
were  affected  by  the  literature;  and  so  has  trained  men 
to  read  with  larger  eyes  the  books  and  peoples  of  the 
past.  With  so  many  new  elements  entering  into  sacred 
scholarship,  it  is  impossible  that  traditional  views  and 
traditional  canons  should  remain  unaffected.  If  ever 
anything  was  inevitable  through  the  progress  of  science, 
it  was  the  birth  of  the  higher  criticism." 

In  this  personal  chapter  I  am  frank  to  say  that  my 
own  interest  and  conviction  have  been  largely  enlisted 
in  this  field  because  of  the  great  and,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  irresistible  mass  of  facts  and  phenomena  of  the 
kind  which  I  have  above  stated,  because  of  its  supreme 
importance  to  the  Christian  Church,  and  because  I 
think  I  see  in  this  advance  in  modern  biblical  study 
a  movement  through  which  most  luminously  God  is 
giving  to  the  world  more  clearly  and  fully  than  ever 
before  the  direct  revelation  of  himself. 


HEBREW  HISTORY 


89 


The  subject  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  not  Creation,  but  the 
Creator.  What  it  gives  us  is  not  a  world,  but  a  God. — Professor 
W.  G.  Elmslie. 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  main  conclusions  of  critics  with 
reference  to  the  authorship  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  rest 
upon  reasonings  the  cogency  of  which  cannot  be  denied  without 
denying  the  ordinary  principles  by  which  history  is  judged  and  evidence 
estimated.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  same  conclusions,  upon 
any  neutral  field  of  investigation,  would  have  been  accepted  without 
hesitation  by  all  conversant  with  the  subject:  they  are  opposed  in 
the  present  instance  by  some  theologians,  only  because  they  are 
supposed  to  conflict  with  the  requirements  of  the  Christian  faith. 
But  the  history  of  astronomy,  geology,  and,  more  recently,  of  biology, 
supplies  a  warning  that  the  conclusions  which  satisfy  the  common 
unbiased  and  unsophisticated  reason  of  mankind  prevail  in  the  end. 
The  price  at  which  alone  the  traditional  view  can  be  maintained 
is  too  high.  Were  the  difficulties  which  beset  it  isolated  or  occasional 
the  case,  it  is  true,  would  be  different:  it  could  then,  for  instance,  be 
reasonably  argued  that  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  times  might  afford 
the  clue  that  would  solve  them.  But  the  phenomena  which  the 
traditional  view  fails  to  explain  are  too  numerous  for  such  a  solution 
to  be  admissible ;  they  recur  so  systematically  that  some  cause  or  causes, 
for  which  that  view  makes  no  allowance,  must  be  postulated  to  account 
for  them.  The  hypothesis  of  glosses  and  marginal  additions  is  a 
superficial  remedy:  the  fundamental  distinctions  upon  which  the 
main  conclusions  of  critics  depend  remain  untouched. — Professor 
S.  R.  Driver. 


90 


CHAPTER  VII 
HEBREW  HISTORY 

Hebrew  history,  always  important  as  a  subject  of 
investigation,  has  come  in  the  present  day  to  be  a  study 
of  engrossing  interest  in  all  centers  of  Christian  learning. 
Until  very  recently  the  Hebrew  writings  of  the  Old 
Testament  were  assumed  to  belong  to  the  oldest  his- 
toric records,  and  to  record  the  history  of  the  most 
ancient  families  of  the  human  race.  Indeed,  from  time 
immemorial,  these  have  been  the  oldest  historic  records 
accessible.  It  has  been  generally  and  most  naturally 
believed  that  the  Hebrew  people,  dating  from  the  days 
of  Abraham,  rank  chronologically,  if  not  the  very  first, 
yet  among  the  oldest  of  the  nations  of  mankind.  It 
has  been  assumed  that  from  the  days  of  Adam,  through 
an  unbroken  succession  which  finally  linked  itself  with 
the  Hebrew  theocracy,  there  was  passed  down  from 
the  sources  of  original  revelation  a  monotheistic  faith 
of  which  the  Hebrew  nation  was  the  special  and  chosen 
inheritor. 

Now  it  has  come  to  be  that  nearly  all  this  view  has 
been  radically  revised.  Archaeology  has  resurrected  the 
histories  of  the  nations  of  Mesopotamia  and  of  Egypt, 
giving  us  as  accurate  and  detailed  a  knowledge  of  their 
ancient  peoples  as  the  Old  Testament  gives  us  of  the 
Israelites.  In  the  light  of  these  records  we  learn  that 
the  Hebrew,  the  Greek,  and  the  Roman  nations  are 
comparatively  modern  among  the  ancient  civilizations. 
Babylonian  history  can  be  definitely  traced  to  a  past 

91 


92         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

that  antedates  Moses  by  a  period  as  great  as  that  which 
separates  Moses  from  our  own  times.  So  far  as  we 
are  able  definitely  to  decide,  the  national  life  of  Israel 
began  in  Palestine  certainly  not  earlier  than  1400  B.  C, 
probably  later.  But  archaeology  gives  indubitable  proof 
of  the  fact  that  there  were  civilized  empires  in  exist- 
ence more  than  six  thousand  years  ago,  and  these  civili- 
zations were  preceded  by  long  prehistoric  periods.  The 
discovery  of  the  code  of  Hammurabi  demonstrates  that 
in  Babylon  as  early  as  2250  B.  C.  there  existed  a  civiliza- 
tion characterized  by  highly  ethical  ideals  and  customs. 
Professor  Kent  characterizes  this  code  as  follows:  "In 
its  high  sense  of  justice;  in  its  regard  for  the  rights  of 
property  and  of  individuals;  in  its  attitude  toward 
women,  even  though  it  comes  from  the  ancient  East; 
and  above  all  in  its  protection  of  widows  and  orphans, 
this  code  marks  almost  as  high  a  stage  in  the  revelation 
of  what  is  right  as  the  primitive  Old  Testament  laws, 
with  which  it  has  points  of  highest  resemblance."  This 
code  certainly,  whether  or  not  the  thought  which  gave 
it  birth  contributed  in  any  measure  to  the  civil  and 
ethical  ideas  which  afterward  entered  so  fully  into  the 
life  of  Israel,  represents  a  civilization  that  was  old  and 
powerful  when  as  yet  history  gives  no  trace  of  even 
the  beginnings  of  the  Hebrew  nation. 

As  for  the  doctrine  of  an  original  revelation  given 
by  God  to  the  first  parents  of  the  race,  and  which  was 
passed  in  a  direct  and  guarded  line  to  the  special  keep- 
ing of  the  Jewish  people,  this  is  a  view  to  which  critical 
history  gives  no  support.  The  evidence,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  that  the  Jewish  people  themselves  sprang 
from   a   polytheistic   ancestry.     It  is   true   that   as   far 


HEBREW  HISTORY  93 

as  we  may  go  back  along  historic  lines  the  peoples  who 
preceded  and  surrounded  the  Israelitish  life  were  re- 
ligious. The  religions  of  these  various  peoples  were  not 
all  of  a  common  type,  but  they  were  all  polytheistic. 
Renan  is  only  one  of  many  historians  who  have  char- 
acterized the  Semitic  races  as  having  a  special  gift  for 
religion.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  this,  the 
Jews  as  a  Semitic  race  were  the  natural  heirs  to  this 
gift.  It  is  also  true  that  the  older  nations  by  which 
Israel  was  surrounded,  Babylon  and  Egypt,  and  of 
whose  religious  and  social  customs  Israel  must  have 
had  large  knowledge,  were  the  possessors  of  the  most 
advanced  religious  faiths  known  to  the  ancient  world. 

The  religious  history,  however,  of  the  Jewish  people, 
so  far  as  we  are  able  to  trace  it,  gives  evidence  of  a 
development  from  primitive  and  idolatrous  beginnings 
in  an  ascent  more  or  less  constant  until  at  last  it  gives 
expression  to  the  sublime  monotheism  of  Isaiah.  The 
distinctive  fact,  and  the  one  of  greatest  possible  sig- 
nificance, is  that,  however  it  emerged,  Israel,  from  a 
very  early  date,  and  in  the  midst  of  hostile  worships, 
did  come  into  possession  of  a  high  monotheistic  faith. 
There  were  long  periods  in  this  history,  as  is  evidenced 
over  and  over  again,  when  this  faith  did  not  seem  to 
have  a  commanding  hold  upon  multitudes  of  the  Jewish 
people.  According  to  their  own  records,  they  were 
scourged  time  and  again  on  account  of  their  tendency 
to  lapse  into  idolatry.  Indeed,  these  lapses  are  evi- 
dences in  themselves  of  the  traditional  affinities  of  this 
people.  The  idolatrous  tendencies  of  Israel  were  never 
finally  purged  away  until  the  nation  underwent  the 
bitter  chastisement  of  the   Babylonian  captivity.     We 


94        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

shall,  however,  look  in  vain  to  any  other  nation  for 
so  lofty  a  faith  as  that  which  was  finally  developed 
in  Judea.  Babylon  and  Egypt  were  each  vastly  more 
learned,  more  scientific,  more  politically  powerful,  than 
the  Hebrew  nation.  But  this  nation  developed  a  great 
priesthood  whose  services  were  devoted  to  conducting 
and  promoting  among  the  people  the  worship  of  the 
Most  High  God.  Under  this  worship  there  was  created 
a  ritual  the  most  elaborate,  the  most  impressive  and 
awe-inspiring  of  any  which  had  ever  been  used  in  human 
worship.  In  connection  with  this  great  faith  there 
arose  a  succession  of  prophets,  men  of  heroic  mold, 
teachers  whose  calls  to  righteous  living  were  like  God's 
clarion  to  the  conscience  of  the  nation,  a  succession 
of  men  whose  inspired  messages  so  searched  man's 
sense  of  duty  as  to  give  them  a  secure  rank  in  all  sub- 
sequent ages  as  the  greatest  moral  leaders  of  mankind. 
Under  this  faith  there  also  arose  a  litany  of  inspired 
song,  the  most  transcendent  ever  used  in  worship.  Wor- 
ship in  its  highest  reaches  of  confidence  and  joy  has 
always  uttered  itself  in  a  rhapsody  of  song.  The  litera- 
ture of  the  Church  is  rich  in  hymns  which  could  have 
been  born  only  from  the  highest  moods  of  gifted  and 
devout  singers  5  but  for  songs  that  voice  the  divine 
glory,  goodness,  and  mercy — songs  that  reflect  every 
mood  of  the  worshipful  soul,  and  which  strike  true  to 
universal  human  experience — the  ancient  psaltery  of 
Israel  has  never  been  surpassed  and  will  never  be  super- 
seded. In  a  sense  and  measure  realized  by  no  other 
minds  of  the  ancient  world,  it  would  seem  indeed  that 
the  Hebrew  priest,  prophet,  and  singer  were  messengers 
of  divinest  truth  to  men. 


HEBREW  HISTORY  95 

How  did  the  Hebrew  nation  come  into  possession 
of  its  distinctive  and  exalted  faith?  In  the  last  anal- 
ysis, there  can  be  but  one  answer  to  this  question.  It 
was  the  Spirit  of  God  moving  in  upon  Hebrew  thought. 
This,  however,  is  not  to  define  the  method  of  the  divine 
procedure.  It  is  quite  conceivable,  and  altogether  prob- 
ably the  fact,  that  God  wrought  his  great  inspirations 
of  truth  into  Hebrew  thought  by  methods  so  apparently 
natural  as  not  easily  to  be  distinguished  from  man's 
own  mental  processes.  Indeed,  they  were  man's  own 
processes,  only  under  the  awakening  of  special  illumina- 
tion. Whatever  the  method  of  illumination,  the  growth 
of  intelligent  faith  under  its  influence,  as  the  whole 
history  illustrates,  was  a  gradual,  much  of  the  time 
a  very  slow,  development.  There  is  a  vast  difference 
between  the  best  faith  of  Moses  and  that  of  Isaiah. 
At  first  Jehovah  dwelt  at  Sinai.  Later  his  dwelling 
place  was  Jerusalem,  which  became  the  city  of  the 
Great  King.  It  was  a  long  time  before  God  seemed 
to  be  spoken  of  as  other  than  the  God  of  Israel,  the 
God  of  the  Jewish  people.  But  in  times  of  the  later 
prophets  the  conception  of  God  had  vastly  grown.  He 
was  the  God  of  all  nations,  the  righteous  Ruler  of  the 
entire  world. 

My  belief  is  that  God's  processes  in  revelation  are 
much  as  his  processes  in  nature,  vital  and,  for  the  most 
part,  not  attended  with  spectacular  phenomena.  I  be- 
lieve that  God's  usual  method  of  revelation  is  through 
natural  psychic  processes.  Upon  this  point,  however,  I 
do  not  care  overmuch  to  philosophize.  I  believe  that 
the  revelation  is  a  divine  process,  whether  it  is  manifest 
in  the  lightning  flash  of  Sinai,  or  comes  on  the  hush 


96         MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

of  night  as  a  still  small  voice.  There  was  a  time,  a 
period  somewhere,  at  which  some  prophetic  mind  clearly 
conceived  of  God  as  a  being  exalted  and  distinct  above 
all  the  gods  of  surrounding  idolatries.  The  idea  of 
Jewish  monotheism,  on  a  less  or  larger  scale,  in  a  crude 
or  more  perfect  form,  must  have  had  a  distinct  genesis. 
The  story  of  Abraham  being  divinely  called  to  migrate 
from  a  far  land  to  Canaan,  that  there  he  might  found 
the  dynasty  of  a  new  faith,  is  sublimely  beautiful.  What- 
ever may  be  concluded  concerning  the  historic  personality 
of  Abraham,  the  story  itself  stands  for  a  great  truth. 
The  name  Abraham  is  sublimely  historic,  it  stands 
at  the  head  of  a  great  moral  epoch,  the  beginning  of 
a  new  monotheism  in  the  world. 

The  luminous  and  supreme  doctrine  of  Christian 
theism  of  to-day,  a  doctrine  which  like  a  mighty  river 
bears  upon  its  bosom  the  entire  structure  of  Christian 
truth,  can  be  traced  for  its  origin  far  beyond  Moses 
to  prehistoric  times.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
beginnings  of  this  faith  arose  in  minds  of  special  dis- 
cernment. The  presence  of  God,  the  God  who  is  in 
all  his  world,  manifested  itself  as  a  revelation  to  these 
souls  in  their  moments  of  highest  insight  and  illumina- 
tion. And  this  is  a  rational  view  of  revelation.  It  is 
a  view  in  harmony  with  the  sanest  philosophy  of  thought. 
It  does  not  mean  that  revelation  in  its  beginnings  arose 
on  the  human  mind  full-orbed  like  the  morning  sun. 
It  does  not  mean  that  divine  truth  was  delivered  to 
human  thought  in  amplified  and  completed  statement. 
It  does  not  the  less  mean  that  to  exceptional  and  devout 
minds  in  moments  of  highest  insight  the  self-revealing 
God  became  manifest.     This  manifestation  was  a  rev- 


HEBREW  HISTORY  97 

elation,  the  unfolding,  to  these  minds  of  a  truth  which 
thereafter  was  to  take  a  distinctive  and  ever-enlarging 
place  in  the  world's  thought  and  conviction.  This 
truth,  in  its  first  apprehension,  in  comparison  to  the 
fullness  of  its  significance,  could  have  been  no  more 
than  the  faintest  dawn  which  heralds  the  coming  day. 
It  was  a  truth  the  very  history  of  which  evidences  a 
slow  development  from  small  beginnings.  Multitudes  of 
the  people,  certainly  in  the  earlier  centuries  of  Israelitish 
life,  seemed  to  have  for  this  truth  only  slight  apprecia- 
tion; for,  as  we  have  seen,  they  were  constantly  lapsing 
from  its  high  demands.  But  this  fact,  upon  the  other 
hand,  serves  to  illustrate  the  force  with  which  the  mono- 
theistic faith  held  the  controlling  minds  of  Israel;  for, 
though  pressed  upon  every  side  by  the  habits  and  thought 
of  traditional  idolatry,  this  faith  never  lost  its  place 
in  the  convictions  of  the  prophetic  and  priestly  leaders 
of  the  people. 

A  standing  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  rational  treat- 
ment of  the  beginnings  of  Hebrew  history  is  that  the 
traditional  view  has  given  almost  no  place  in  that  history 
for  the  play  of  mythological  and  legendary  factors. 
The  roots  of  all  ancient  civilization  are  found  to  strike 
deeply  into  mythological  soil.  Investigation  has  confirmed 
this  truth  as  applied  to  the  civilizations  of  the  far  East, 
and  we  know  that  the  histories  of  Babylon,  Assyria,  Egypt, 
Greece,  and  Rome  emerge  from  backgrounds  of  myth  and 
are  conveyed  through  legendary  channels.  From  the 
standpoint  of  natural  development  there  seems  no  reason 
why  Israelitish  history  should  be  an  exception  to  this 
general  law.  And,  indeed,  it  is  not  an  exception.  It 
has  only  been  falsely  treated  as  such.     It  is  now  indubi- 


98      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

tably  proven  that  many  of  the  stories  which  appear  in 
the  earlier  records  of  the  Old  Testament  were  simply 
taken  over  and  adapted  from  older  mythical  or 
legendary  sources,  and  that  they  are  not  to  be  taken 
at  face  value  as  sober  and  measured  history. 

In  the  common  thought  Genesis  has  been  received 
as  the  oldest  Hebrew  literature.  It  has  been  assumed 
that  Moses  was  its  author,  and  that  it  is  so  inspired 
as  to  admit  of  no  statements  not  historically  and  lit- 
erally true.  If  these  assumptions  were  correct,  then, 
indeed,  they  would  rightly  exclude  all  mythical  state- 
ments from  the  Genesis  record.  But,  in  the  sense  in 
which  these  assumptions  were  held,  they  are  denied, 
and  universally  so,  by  modern  critical  thought.  In  the 
first  place,  Genesis  in  its  compilation  and  present  form 
is  one  of  the  most  recent  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
While  it  deals  with  much  that  pertains  to  the  Mosaic 
era,  and  may  in  part  present  matter  of  which  possibly 
Moses  was  the  recorder,  yet  the  book  was  not,  and 
could  not  have  been,  written  by  the  hand  of  Moses. 
That  the  book  is  inspired,  and  thus  divinely  used,  is 
not  to  be  denied.  But  that  it  is  inspired  in  such  sense 
as  to  put  the  stamp  of  divine  veracity  upon  all  that 
it  narrates,  is  an  assumption  which  need  not  be  urged. 

Genesis  is  divided  into  an  order  of  sequence  which 
would  be  very  naturally  assumed  by  an  ancient  writer 
who  would  undertake  to  record  a  history  of  the  world's 
first  things.  It  begins  with  an  account  of  creation, 
including  man.  Its  first  period,  a  period  indeed  suffi- 
ciently abounding  in  fable,  ends  at  the  flood.  The  ante- 
diluvian race  waxed  wicked  upon  the  earth,  so  much 
so  that  it  repented  God  that  he  had  made  man.     But 


HEBREW  HISTORY  99 

one  righteous  man  remains,  Noah.  To  him  God  com- 
mitted the  building  of  an  ark,  and  the  gathering  into 
it  in  pairs  samples  of  all  the  animal  world,  and  finally 
his  own  family,  preparatory  to  a  universal  flood  by 
which  God  would  destroy  a  wicked  race.  It  was  thus 
that  God  miraculously  preserves  only  a  single  family, 
which,  starting  the  race  anew,  should  be  the  progenitors 
of  prophetic  peoples  yet  to  come.  Later,  diverse  lan- 
guages prevailed  in  the  human  race.  The  philosophy 
is  explained  in  the  story  of  Babel,  an  enterprise  which 
God  rebuked  by  confounding  the  common  language  and 
scattering  the  tribes.  The  next  great  epoch  embraces 
the  patriarchs  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  and  their  pos- 
terity, the  covenant  characters  from  whom  finally  was 
to  spring  the  Israelitish  nation. 

Now,  this  is  a  program  of  providential  order  such  as 
would  naturally  appeal  to  a  late  but  unscientific  Jewish 
writer  who  might  seek  to  record  from  their  beginnings 
the  historic  steps  which  preceded  the  establishment  of 
the  Hebrew  nation.  This  diagram  is  spectacular  with 
the  movement  of  forces  which  could  only  be  directed 
by  Almighty  power.  The  creation,  the  deluge,  the  dis- 
persion of  tongues,  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  the  guidance 
of  patriarchal  history  were  indeed  acts  worthy  of  the 
great  God  of  the  Hebrews.  But  the  God  who  directs 
these  marvelous  events  is  not  a  God  limited  to  the 
conception  of  Moses.  He  is  God  as  seen  in  the  vision 
of  the  later  prophets.  But,  critically  viewed,  all  of 
these  events  are  clothed  more  in  a  traditional  than  in 
a  historic  drapery.  The  form  in  which  these  stories 
are  cast  is  Hebrew,  and  they  are  religiously  employed 
by  the  prophetic  and  priestly  writers  to  illustrate  the 


ioo      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

creative  cast  and  the  providential  guidance  in  human 
events  of  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel.  But  most  of 
these  stories  themselves  did  not  originate  in  the  Hebrew 
thought.  The  narratives  of  creation,  of  paradise,  and 
of  the  flood  are  all,  in  their  main  substance,  borrowed 
from  the  older  traditions  of  Babylon.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  process  of  absorption,  however  possibly 
unconscious  to  the  men  who  gave  final  shape  to  the 
book  of  Genesis,  the  evidence  is  irresistible  that  the 
Hebrews  adopted  these  Babylonian  traditions,  and, 
purging  them  of  their  polytheistic  features,  made  them 
subsidiary  to  their  monotheistic  faith.  That  under  this 
transformation  they  are  made  to  serve  high  religious 
uses  is  doubtless  true  5  but  to  associate  with  these  nar- 
ratives a  kind  of  inspiration  compatible  only  with  their 
historic  genuineness  is  inadmissible. 

The  attributed  longevity  of  the  antediluvians  is  a 
narrative  which  has  its  parallels  in  the  mythology  of 
nearly  all  ancient  peoples.  Josephus,  after  having  de- 
fended the  great  longevity  of  these  ancients,  says: 
"Let  no  one,  upon  comparing  the  lives  of  the  ancients 
with  our  lives,  and  with  the  few  years  which  we  now 
live,  think  that  what  we  have  said  of  them  is  false.  .  .  . 
Now  I  have  for  witness  to  what  I  have  said,  all  those 
that  have  written  Antiquities,  both  among  the  Greeks 
and  the  Barbarians."  Then  he  proceeds  to  cite  many 
authorities  who  relate  that  the  ancients  of  their  respec- 
tive races  lived  to  the  period  of  a  thousand  years. 

Reared  in  an  atmosphere  of  reverential  respect  for 
all  statements  to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  and  far  from 
the  bias  of  natural  or  inherited  skepticism,  I  early  began 
to  experience  difficulty  with  some  of  the  narratives  of 


HEBREW  HISTORY  ior 

the  Old  Testament.  I  found  myself  able  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  many  statements  only  on  the  ground  that 
these  early  ages  were  under  the  reign  of  miracle  and 
of  exceptional  wonder-working  power.  As  I  came  to 
have  a  wider  knowledge  of  history  the  suggestion 
came  to  me  with  increasing  and  disturbing  force 
that  there  seemed  certainly  to  be  much  in  the  early 
Hebrew  narratives  quite  akin  with  the  prehistoric  tra- 
ditions of  other  ancient  peoples.  I  was  not  a  critical 
student.  I  was  not  prepared  to  coordinate  or  to  under- 
stand these  apparent  similarities  in  the  traditions  of 
other  people  as  related  to  Bible  history.  Personally, 
in  these  later  years,  I  have  been  helped  to  great  mental 
restfulness  on  all  these  questions  by  my  readings  in 
the  field  of  scientific  biblical  study.  I  have  been  forced 
to  modify  many  of  my  early  notions  about  the  Bible, 
but  at  no  expense  to  its  real  values,  which  seem  to 
me  more  precious  and  more  luminous  than  ever  before. 
I  have  learned  to  accept  the  fact  that  the  Bible,  as 
other  great  literatures,  takes  into  itself  the  elements  of 
social  development,  including  tradition  and  fable,  and, 
however  it  may  be  shot  through  with  the  sun-rays  of 
inspiration,  it  is  a  book  very  human  in  its  character, 
faithfully  reflecting  the  thought-processes,  early  and  late, 
of  the  races  with  which  it  deals. 

Keeping  close  company  with  this  view  must  ever  go 
the  memory  that  in  this  record  are  to  be  clearly  traced 
God's  movements  and  relations  with  humanity.  A  rev- 
elation is  enshrined  in  this  history.  Through  divinely 
kindled  souls  God  was  gradually  making  himself  known 
to  that  far-off,  infantile  world.  It  was  not  yet  full 
morning.     The   most   luminous   minds   did  not   possess 


io2       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

noonday  knowledge.  There  was  no  inspiration  which 
was  to  stand  in  lieu  of  historic  truth.  It  would  be 
easy  for  the  most  gifted  religious  teacher  to  make  wrong 
inferences  as  to  matters  of  fact,  and  to  use  even  tra- 
dition and  fable  as  the  basis  of  spiritual  lessons. 

In  judging  these  ancient  Scriptures,  then,  we  must 
not  treat  them  unfairly.  We  must  not  expect  them  to 
meet  modern  standards  of  thought  and  knowledge. 
They  were  written  in  ages  destitute  of  trained  scientific 
minds.  These  were  ages  abounding  in  tradition  and 
myth,  but  the  passion  and  appliances  for  a  critical 
examination  of  historic  foundations  were  not  yet  de- 
veloped. These  were  ages  when  the  great  mysteries  of 
life  and  of  nature  were  pictorially  conceived  and  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  poetry.  And  we  may  not  forget 
that  these  Scriptures  come  to  us  under  the  impress, 
stamped  through  and  through  their  very  texture,  of 
the  Oriental  mind  and  imagination.  As  Professor  Kent 
has  vividly  put  it:  "The  background  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  the  ancient  East — the  age  and  land  of  wonder, 
mystery,  and  intuition,  far  removed  from  the  logical, 
rushing  world  in  which  we  live.  The  Old  Testament 
contains  a  vast  and  complex  literature,  filled  with  the 
thoughts  and  figures,  and  cast  in  the  quaint  language 
of  the  Semitic  past.  Between  us  and  that  past  there 
lie  not  merely  long  centuries,  but  the  wide  gulf  that 
is  fixed  between  the  East  and  the  West." 

When,  then,  we  find  the  ancient  writers  of  Genesis 
using  current  traditions  and  myths  as  the  bases  on 
which  they  superimposed  the  morals  of  the  Hebrew 
faith  we  need  not  be  surprised.  It  was  not  the  function 
of  inspiration  to  reveal  to  these  writers  the  origin  of 


HEBREW  HISTORY  103 

creation.  When  they  would  give  a  philosophy  of  first 
things  they  simply  laid  hold  upon  the  story  of  creation 
which  had  been  passed  down  to  them  through  the  chan- 
nel of  ancient  tradition.  This  story  they  stripped  of 
its  polytheistic  atmosphere  and  dress  and  made  it  the 
basis  of  the  monotheistic  creation.  The  same  principle 
holds  true  of  the  stories  of  the  longevity  of  the  ante- 
diluvians, of  the  flood,  and  of  much  that  enters  into 
the  patriarchal  narratives.  The  writers  of  Genesis  had 
no  authentic  knowledge  of  a  flood.  They  simply  took 
the  tradition  and  made  it  the  basis  of  a  great  homily 
on  righteousness.  They  may  have  believed  fully  that 
they  were  stating  history,  but  the  significant  thing  is 
that  they  used  the  material  in  hand  for  the  purpose 
of  illustrating  God's  righteous  anger  against  wicked- 
ness, and  his  providential  care  and  protection  for  those 
who  were  obedient  to  his  laws.  And  this  is  what  we 
are  to  look  for  in  these  ancient  writers — not  history, 
not  science,  but  a  revelation  of  the  righteous  God  through 
moral  law. 

Viewed  from  this  standpoint,  the  use  of  these  pre- 
historic incidents  is  not  only  significant,  but  most  natural 
and  legitimate.  Among  all  the  intellectual  possessions 
of  the  age,  these  were  the  most  striking  and  wonderful. 
Than  these  there  were  no  loftier  headlands  of  imagina- 
tion with  which  the  inspired  thinker  could  associate 
the  divine  movements.  And  when  we  come  to  measure 
fairly  the  moral  lessons  illustrated  in  these  narrations: 
the  sublimity  of  the  creative  acts  ascribed  to  God;  the 
making  of  man  in  God's  own  image;  the  profound  psy- 
chology of  the  story  of  the  first  transgression;  the  de- 
mands and  penalties  of  righteous  law,  and  the  certainty 


io4      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

of  God's  providential  relations  to  the  world  as  illustrated 
in  the  statement  of  the  flood ;  God's  guidance  and  purpose 
in  human  history  as  shown  in  the  patriarchal  stories — 
looked  at  from  this  plane  we  can  see  that  these  early 
narratives  not  only  had  a  vivid  interest  in  themselves, 
but  they  were  properly  seized  upon  as  a  fitting  back- 
ground from  which  to  project  upon  the  ancient  world 
the  best  revelation  then  possible  of  the  one  true  God. 
In  this  light  these  stories  have  a  superlative  value, 
and  are  of  imperishable  interest  to  mankind. 

I  have  not  proposed  to  myself  to  attempt  a  critical 
discussion  of  the  traditional,  but  nonhistorical,  elements 
that  enter  into  the  Genesis  narrative.  Among  these 
the  story  of  the  flood  is  prominent.  The  scientific  survey 
of  this  story  has  been  convincingly  written  by  many 
scholars.  I  have  thought  that,  in  bringing  this  chapter 
to  a  close,  I  may  render  no  better  service  than  to  quote 
quite  in  full  Professor  Driver's  discussion  of  the  flood 
story  as  given  in  his  commentary  on  the  book  of  Genesis: 

Has  there  been  a  Universal  Deluge?  Until  comparatively  recent 
times,  the  belief  in  a  Deluge  covering  the  whole  world,  and  destroying 
all  terrestrial  animals  and  men  except  those  preserved  in  the  ark, 
was  practically  universal  among  Christians.  Not  only  did  this  seem 
to  be  required  by  the  words  of  the  narrative  (6.  17;  7.  4,  21-23),  Du* 
the  fossil  remains  of  marine  animals,  found  sometimes  even  on  lofty 
mountains,  and  the  existence  of  traditions  of  a  Flood  among  nations 
living  in  many  different  parts  of  the  world,  were  confidently  appealed 
to  as  confirmatory  of  the  fact.  But  the  rise,  within  the  last  century, 
of  a  science  of  geology  has  shown  that  the  occurrence  of  a  universal 
Deluge,  since  the  appearance  of  man  upon  the  earth,  is  beyond  the 
range  of  physical  possibility;  while  the  principles  of  comparative 
mythology  show  that  the  traditions  of  a  Flood  current  in  different 
parts  of  the  world  do  not  necessarily  perpetuate  the  memory  of  a 
single  historical  event.  (1)  If  "all  the  high  hills  under  the  whole 
heaven"  (7.  19)  were  covered,  there  must,  by  the  most  elementary 
principles  of  hydrostatics,  have  been  five  miles  depth  of  water  over  the 


HEBREW  HISTORY  105 

entire  globe :  whence  could  this  incredible  amount  of  water  have  come, 
and  whither,  when  the  Flood  abated,  could  it  have  disappeared? 
Even,  indeed,  though  the  expression  in  7.19  were  taken  hyperbolically, 
or  limited  to  the  mountains  known  to  the  writer,  the  difficulty  would 
not  be  materially  diminished:  it  is  clear  from  8.  4,  5  that  the  writer 
pictured  an  immense  depth  of  water  upon  the  earth :  and  even  if  only 
Palestine,  and  the  mountains  (not  the  highest)  in  Armenia  were  sub- 
merged, it  must  have  risen  to  at  least  3,000  feet;  and  water  standing 
3,000  feet  above  the  sea  in  Palestine  or  Armenia  implies  3,000  feet  of 
water  in  every  other  part  of  the  globe — an  amount  incredible  in  itself, 
besides  involving,  quite  as  fully  as  five  miles  of  water  would  do,  all 
the  difficulties  mentioned  below.  No  doubt  there  was  a  time  when 
hills  and  mountains  were  submerged,  and  when  the  remains  of  marine 
animals  referred  to  above  were  deposited  on  what  was  then  the  bottom 
of  the  sea;  but,  as  geology  shows,  that  was  in  an  age  long  anterior  to 
the  appearance  of  man  upon  the  earth,  and  the  period  of  submergence 
must  have  lasted,  not  for  a  single  year,  but  for  untold  centuries. 
(2)  Without  the  assumption  of  a  stupendous  miracle  (for  which  there 
is  not  the  smallest  warrant  in  the  words  of  the  text),  all  species  of 
living  terrestrial  animals  (including  many  peculiar  to  distant  con- 
tinents and  islands,  and  others  adapted  only  to  subsist  in  the  torrid 
or  frigid  zone,  respectively)  could  not  have  been  brought  to  Noah, 
or  so  far  tamed  as  to  have  refrained  from  attacking  each  other,  and 
to  have  submitted  peaceably  to  Noah.  (3)  The  number  of  living 
species  of  terrestrial  animals  is  so  great  that  it  is  physically  impossible 
that  room  could  have  been  found  for  them  in  the  ark.  (4)  A  universal 
Deluge  is  inconsistent  with  the  geographical  distribution  of  existing 
land  animals:  for  different  continents  and  islands  have  each  many 
species  of  animals  peculiar  to  themselves — South  America,  for  example, 
has  the  sloth  and  the  armadilla,  Australia  has  marsupials,  New  Zealand 
strange  wingless  birds ;  but  if  all  land  animals  were  destroyed  at  a  date 
when  these  continents  and  islands  were  separated  from  one  another 
substantially  as  they  are  now,  how  could  the  representatives  of  all 
these  species  have  found  their  way  back  over  many  thousands  of 
miles  of  land  and  sea  to  their  present  habitations?  (5)  If  the  entire 
human  race,  except  Noah  and  his  family,  were  destroyed  at  the  same 
date,  the  widely  different  races,  languages,  and  civilizations  of  Baby- 
lonia, Egypt,  India,  China,  Australia,  America — to  say  nothing  of 
other  countries — cannot  be  accounted  for:  for  the  races  inhabiting 
these  countries,  if  they  ever  lived  together  in  a  common  home,  could 
not  have  developed  the  differences  which  they  exhibit,  unless  they  had 
started  migrating  from  it  centuries,  and  indeed  millennia,  before  either 
B.  C.  2501  or  B.  C.  3066;  moreover,  in  the  case  of  at  least  Babylonia 
and  Egypt,  we  possess  monumental  evidence  that  civilization  in  these 


io0      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

countries  existed  continuously,  without  a  break,  from  a  period  long 
anterior  to  either  of  these  dates. 

Upon  these  grounds — to  which  others  might  be  added — the  suppo- 
sition that  the  Deluge  of  Noah  was  a  universal  one,  is,  it  is  evident, 
out  of  the  question,  and  has  indeed  been  generally  abandoned. 

Even,  however,  the  attempt  which  has  been  often  made  to  regard 
the  Deluge  as  a  "partial"  one  is  beset  by  difficulties.  Certainly  there 
would  be  no  objection,  upon  scientific  grounds,  to  the  supposition  that 
there  was,  about  B.  C.  2500,  an  extensive  and  destructive  local  inun- 
dation in  the  lower  part  of  the  plain  of  Babylonia;  but  an  inundation 
such  as  this  does  not  satisfy  the  terms  of  the  narrative  of  Genesis.  The 
waters  are  described  as  rising  at  least  as  high  as  "mountains  of  Ararat" 
(8.  5),  the  lowest  of  which  are  more  than  2,500  feet  above  the  plain  of 
Babylonia.  (2)  The  narrative  speaks  repeatedly  of  every  living  thing 
which  had  been  created,  including  in  particular  all  mankind,  as  having 
been  destroyed.  But  a  flood  confined  to  the  plain  of  Babylonia  would 
certainly  not  have  destroyed  all  animals  upon  the  earth :  it  is,  moreover, 
certain — to  say  nothing  of  India,  China,  and  other  parts — that  long 
before  B.  C.  2501  mankind  had  spread  as  far  as  Egypt,  and  had 
established  an  important  civilization  there,  which  obviously  could 
not  have  been  affected  by  a  flood,  however  extensive,  in  Babylonia. 
It  is  manifest  that  a  flood  which  would  submerge  Egypt  as  well  as 
Babylonia  must  have  risen  to  at  least  2,000  feet  (the  height  of  the 
elevated  country  between  them) ,  and  have  thus  been  In  fact  a  universal 
one  (which  has  been  shown  to  be  impossible) :  a  flood,  on  the  other 
hand,  which  did  less  than  this  is  not  what  the  biblical  writers  describe, 
and  would  not  have  accomplished  what  is  represented  as  having 
been  the  entire  raison  d'etre  of  the  Flood,  the  destruction  of  all  man- 
kind. We  are  forced,  consequently,  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Flood, 
as  described  by  the  biblical  writers,  is  unhistorical. 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS 


107 


The  great  Old  Testament  scholars  of  the  past  half-century  have 
most  of  them  been  critics,  and  they  have  performed  a  monumental 
work.  .  .  . 

It  has  been  now  established  as  a  fixed  principle  of  hermeneutics 
that  the  Bible  must  be  interpreted  just  as  any  other  book  is.  Our 
inquiry,  as  we  study  it,  must  always  be,  not,  What  could  this  verse 
or  passage  be  ?  but,  What  did  it  mean  ?  or,  What  does  it  mean  ?  From 
this  principle  there  is  no  escape.  The  thinking  world  will  tolerate 
none  other.  But  this  new  attitude,  valuable  at  it  may  be  in  itself, 
has  still  increased  our  difficulties.  For  it  has  shown  that  the  sacred 
writers  were  enmeshed  in  the  transient  customs  and  thought  of  their 
own  time  to  an  extent  that  had  not  been  realized  before.  .  .  . 

The  great  task  of  the  interpreter  of  any  ancient  work  is  to  deter- 
mine the  conditions  of  life  and  thought  under  which  it  originated. 
This  is  in  no  case  an  easy  task.  But,  if  our  critics  are  to  be  trusted, 
it  is  especially  difficult  in  the  case  of  the  Old  Testament.  For  its 
books  are  very  few  of  them  unities.  In  some  instances  several  docu- 
ments of  varying  ages  have  been  united  together,  and  in  others  ex- 
tensive interpolations  from  a  later  date  have  been  made,  so  that 
single  chapters,  yea,  single  verses,  are  divided  up  among  different 
authors  that  lived  centuries  apart.  The  question,  therefore,  of  the 
intelligibility  of  the  Old  Testament,  particularly  to  the  average 
reader,  is  a  serious  matter.  .  .  . 

It  is  to  modern  scholarship  that  the  lot  has  fallen  of  grappling  with 
this  problem  of  the  intelligibility  of  the  Old  Testament  in  a  seemingly 
final  way.  Its  labors  have  been  characterized  by  unrestrained  free- 
dom and  by  an  astonishing  thoroughness.  Its  resources  both  in  the 
form  of  method  and  of  material  seem  almost  unlimited.  It  would 
take  volumes,  indeed  it  has  taken  whole  libraries,  to  record  all  that  has 
been  done  in  the  field  of  textual  criticism,  of  philology,  and  of  archae- 
ology, simply  for  the  purpose  of  making  this  ancient  literature  more 
intelligible  to  us. — Professor  Albert  C.  Knudson. 


108 


CHAPTER  VIII 
OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS 

The  canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  embracing  the 
books  as  we  now  have  them,  was  not  completed  till 
about  the  close  of  the  first  Christian  century.  It  con- 
sists of  what  were  originally  known  as  three  distinct 
selections  of  books — the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Writings.  The  first  group  composed  the  Pentateuch, 
and  this  was  canonized  some  time,  probably  early,  in 
the  fourth  century  B.  C.  In  the  second  group  were 
included,  in  a  first  division,  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel, 
and  Kings.  In  a  second  division  were  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel,  and  the  Twelve  Minor  Prophets.  The  canoniza- 
tion of  this  group  was  gradual,  the  first  four  books 
being  probably  admitted  about  300  B.  C,  while  the 
entire  list  was  not  completed  earlier  than  200  B.  C.  The 
third  group,  consisting  of  the  Old  Testament  books 
not  above  named,  called  the  Writings,  also  spoken  of 
as  "the  rest  of  the  books,"  found  its  way  into  the  canon 
by  slow  admissions.  Various  parts  of  the  Psalter,  for 
instance,  were  received  at  different  times,  until  finally 
the  collection  as  we  now  have  it  was  complete. 

The  book  of  Daniel,  as  late  written,  was  one  of  the 
last  of  the  prophetical  books  to  be  received.  The  canon 
was  closed  by  the  admission  of  Ecclesiastes  and  the 
Song  of  Songs.  While  it  is  to  be  acknowledged  that 
some  of  these  books  have  a  much  higher  religious  value 
than  others,  yet  the  collection  as  a  whole  was  made  up, 
as  both  the  process  and  the  quality  of  results  attest, 

109 


no      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

on  a  very  lofty  standard  of  selection,  a  standard  sup- 
ported by  the  highest  religious  sense  of  the  nation. 

There  is  evidence  that  the  canon  as  now  preserved 
was  selected  from  a  comparatively  large  Hebrew  lit- 
erature, but  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  nearly  all  of 
this  literature  outside  of  the  Old  Testament  has  perished. 
There  is  a  mass  of  Jewish  writings  now  extant  in  Greek, 
in  which  is  included  the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha. 
Some  of  the  apocryphal  writings  are  of  high  religious 
value,  and  anciently,  especially  among  the  Alexandrian 
Jews,  it  was  strongly  felt  that  these  should  be  admitted 
to  the  canon.  It  may  also  be  said  that  this  Alexandrian 
judgment  is  not  without  support  from  many  competent 
modern  scholars. 

In  the  canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  a  precious 
cabinet  containing  the  crown  jewels  of  a  kingdom,  we 
have  preserved  to  us  the  records  of  God's  revelation 
to  the  Hebrew  people,  and  through  this  people  to  the 
entire  world.  A  work,  a  very  divine  work,  a  work 
yielding  results  of  inestimable  value,  to  which  God  has 
been  calling  modern  scholarship,  is  the  task  of  dis- 
covering the  real  history  and  the  chronological  order  of 
the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  only  as  these 
facts  are  ascertained  that  the  writings  themselves  can, 
on  critical  examination,  be  made  to  yield  a  satisfactory 
account  of  themselves  as  literature,  and,  what  is  of 
far  greater  importance,  render  a  consistent  development 
of  the  processes  of  revelation  itself.  It  has  come  to  be 
an  imperative,  almost  an  axiomatic,  demand  of  modern 
philosophy  that  all  great  movements  of  human  thought 
and  history  shall  come  under  a  law  of  progressive  develop- 
ment.    It  has   long   been   widely   and   profoundly   felt 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  in 

that  the  process  of  revelation,  as  conditioned  by  the 
mental  growth  of  the  race,  can  be  no  exception  to  this 
demand. 

But  on  the  assumption,  for  instance,  that  one  writer 
was  the  author  of  the  five  books  of  the  Pentateuch, 
it  is  evident  to  the  casual  reader  that  as  these  writings 
now  stand  in  the  canon  they  yield  no  satisfactory  evi- 
dence of  either  historic  order  or  of  progressive  revelation. 
They  present  in  brief  compass,  and  not  with  freedom 
from  confusion,  many  varieties  of  literary  style,  diverse 
conditions  of  civilization,  and  laws  which  for  simul- 
taneous administration  would  certainly  conflict  with 
themselves. 

It  is  the  conclusion  of  critical  scholarship  that  the 
literature  embraced  in  the  Pentateuch  is  the  product 
more  nearly  of  a  thousand  years  rather  than  the  writings 
of  a  single  author.  It  has  long  been  noted  that  the 
historic  books  of  the  Old  Testament  often  give  different 
and  varied  narratives  of  the  same  events.  Thus  in 
Genesis,  through  the  first  chapter  to  the  fourth  verse 
of  the  second  chapter,  and  then  from  the  fourth  verse 
to  the  end  of  chapter  two,  are  two  distinct  accounts 
of  creation.  In  the  essential  facts  stated  these  two 
accounts  agree;  but  to  the  critical  reader  their  literary 
style  is  so  diverse  as  to  make  it  seem  improbable  that 
the  two  could  have  sprung  from  the  same  author.  In 
form  they  seem  also  not  to  belong  to  the  same  age  of 
literary  composition.  In  the  group  of  chapters  (n.  10 
to  25.  20)  giving  the  Abrahamic  stories,  there  can  be 
traced  at  least  "nine  examples  of  duplicate  versions." 
Also  in  the  later  group  of  stories  in  which  Joseph  ap- 
pears as  the  chief  figure  there  is  evidence  of  at  least 


ii2       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

nine  other  duplicate  statements.  Professor  Driver,  in 
his  Introduction  to  Genesis,  says:  "The  book  of  Genesis 
presents  two  groups  of  sections,  distinguished  from  each 
other  by  differences  of  phraseology  and  style,  and  often 
also  by  accompanying  differences  of  representation,  so 
marked,  so  numerous,  and  so  recurrent,  that  they  can 
only  be  accounted  for  by  the  supposition  that  the  groups 
in  which  they  occur  are  not  both  the  work  of  the  same 
hand."  It  is  to  be  noted  that  these  distinct  groups 
characterize  in  a  very  marked  degree  not  only  Genesis, 
but  the  entire  first  six  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 

So  true  is  this  that  if  the  group  represented  by  the 
first  citation  (Gen.  i.  i  to  2.  4)  were  separated  from  all 
other  matter  contained  in  the  Hexateuch,  this  group 
by  itself  would  be  found  to  form  a  very  nearly  com- 
plete narrative,  giving  an  account  especially  of  the 
origins  and  institutions  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  evident  presence  of  these  diverse  features  in 
the  literary  body  of  the  Old  Testament  as  early  as  a 
century  and  a  half  ago  led  to  the  beginnings  of  what  is 
now  familiarly  known  as  the  "documentary  hypothesis." 
This  hypothesis  assumes  that  the  early  Hebrew  writings 
are  based  originally  upon  different  preexisting  docu- 
ments, which  have  gone  through  successive  processes 
of  collection  and  combination  until  finally,  by  later 
editors,  they  have  been  gathered  into  one  narrative. 
The  inference  would  also  seem  clear  that  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  narratives  the  editors  themselves  felt  free 
to  give  to  the  various  documents  such  revision  as  in 
their  judgment  might  be  required  for  harmonizing  the 
narratives  as  a  whole. 

Dr.  W.  G.  Jordan,  professor  of  Hebrew  and  Old  Testa- 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  113 

ment  exegesis  in  Queen's  University,  Kingston,  Canada, 
a  recognized  authority  in  this  field,  says:  "The  most 
important  contribution  that  Old  Testament  criticism  has 
given  to  the  world  is  no  doubt  the  'documentary  theory,' 
or,  in  other  words,  the  theory  that  the  Pentateuch  is 
not  the  product  of  one  writer  or  of  one  generation,  but 
consists  of  four  different  documents,  which  had  their 
origin  in  different  ages  and  circumstances.  This  is  now 
pretty  generally  regarded  as  one  of  the  'assured  results' 
of  scientific  research."  He  further  says:  "It  is  now 
generally  held  that  in  the  first  five  books  of  the  Bible 
we  have  represented  different  kinds  of  literature,  various 
stages  of  history,  and  diverse  types  of  theology,  proph- 
ecy, and  law.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  at  first,  it  be- 
comes clearer  the  more  the  matter  is  looked  into  that 
the  first  chapter  of  the  Bible  is,  in  its  present  form, 
one  of  the  latest  parts  in  this  wonderful  collection, 
and  that  in  order  to  gain  a  scientific  view  of  the  growth 
and  advancement  of  Hebrew  religious  thought  and  life 
the  material  must  be  arranged  in  a  form  quite  different 
from  that  which  we  find  in  our  ordinary  Bible." 

I  shall  attempt  now  to  present  a  brief  and  intelligent 
outline  of  the  "documentary  theory"  in  the  acceptance 
of  which  there  seems  to  be  general  agreement  among 
recognized  biblical  scholars.  The  theory  is  built  on 
the  basis  of  four  distinct  documents,  or  groups  of  docu- 
ments, which  furnish  the  original  material  from  which 
the  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  and,  indeed,  most  of  the 
historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  are  constructed. 
These  documents  have  so  long  had  an  interrelated 
history  that  the  outlines  lying  between  them  cannot 
always  in  all  features  be  distinctly  traced.     They  have 


ii4       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

been  much  edited,  in  parts  often  combined  with  each 
other,  and  finally  they  were  editorially  interwoven  to 
make  up  the  literary  body  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
its  present  form.  The  four  main  documents  were  not 
only  respectively  the  products  of  different  periods  and 
of  different  schools  of  thought;  but  the  documents 
themselves  embodied  traditions  which  far  antedated  the 
periods  of  their  own  composition.  As  fossil  remains 
in  the  geographical  strata,  so  in  these  are  often  found 
reminders  of  far-away  traditions,  the  telltale  repro- 
ductions of  prehistoric  life.  Yet,  whatever  the  fusion 
of  these  documents  in  minor  relations,  however  great 
the  difficulty  here  and  there  of  assigning  to  its  right 
group  a  given  passage,  the  documents  themselves  in 
their  individual  distinctness  are  now  seen  to  run,  like 
parallel  ranges,  throughout  the  entire  historical  fields 
of  Old  Testament  literature. 

The  oldest  of  the  documents  in  the  order  of  pro- 
duction is  that  which  specially  contains  the  "Judean 
prophetic"  narratives.  These  narratives  were  composed 
with  special  reference  to  Judah  and  the  southern  king- 
dom. They  are  called  "prophetic"  because  written  from 
the  standpoint  and  with  the  aims  of  the  early  prophets. 
These  narratives  are  sometimes  called  "Jehovistic,"  be- 
cause Jehovah  is  the  name  which  they  usually  applied 
to  the  Deity  in  contradistinction  to  the  term  "Elohim" 
as  employed  in  the  priestly  narratives.  These  nar- 
ratives, beginning  with  the  account  of  creation,  deal 
in  the  traditions  leading  up  to  Israelitish  history,  and 
with  that  history  itself  to  a  period  as  late  as  the  death 
of  David.  Their  purpose  is  to  give  a  connected  history, 
from    earliest    beginnings,    of   the    covenant    people   of 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  115 

Jehovah.  They  seize  hold  of  traditions  from  whatever 
source  if  they  illustrate  Israel's  early  history,  or  Jehovah's 
relations  to  his  people.  The  style  of  these  narratives 
is  vivid,  pictorial,  often  poetical.  Their  conception  of 
God  is  highly  anthropomorphic.  They  picture  the  Deity 
coming  in  familiar  form  and  manner  into  frequent  con- 
tact with  men.  Their  measurement  of  sin  is  largely 
regulated  by  the  personal  loyalty  or  otherwise  of  man 
to  God  as  his  friend.  Adam  and  Eve  were  sinners,  not 
because  it  was  wrong  in  itself  to  eat  the  forbidden  fruit, 
but  because  they  were  personally  disobedient  to  God's 
demand.  Abraham  was  an  ideal  character,  known  as 
the  "Friend  of  God,"  because  he  was  responsive  to 
Jehovah's  will.  These  narratives  lay  very  little  stress 
upon  forms  and  ceremonies,  but  emphasize  religion  as 
vitally  expressing  itself  in  an  attitude  of  obedience  as 
shown  in  just  and  loving  acts. 

The  many  different  stories  embodied  in  these  nar- 
ratives, some  of  them  evidently  reflecting  "exceedingly 
primitive  ideas  and  usages,  while  others  in  language 
and  representation  are  related  to  the  writings  of  a  ma- 
turer  age,"  indicate  that  their  material  was  gathered 
from  many  different  sources  and  representative  of  widely 
different  periods.  The  probabilities  are  that  the  work 
of  collecting  these  stories  was  not  that  of  one  man, 
but  of  a  school  of  prophets.  The  narratives  of  the 
Judean  document  run  through  the  books  of  Genesis, 
Exodus,  Numbers,  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  Kings,  and 
represent  more  than  one  third  the  total  contents  of 
these  books.  The  prophetic  writing  of  the  history 
contained  in  this  document  was  probably  begun  about 
825  B.  C.     Its  main  body  was  completed  at  a  period 


n6   MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

not  much  later  than  the  eighth  century.  The  contents 
of  this  document,  however,  were  subject  to  the  review, 
revision,  and  addition  of  late  prophetic  writers,  and 
evidence  appears  that  supplementary  additions  were 
from  time  to  time  made  to  the  original  document  down 
to  a  period  as  late  as  650  B.  C.  For  purposes  of  con- 
venient identification  this  document  is  designated  in 
critical  works  as  "J." 

The  second  document  in  the  order  of  development  is 
that  which  is  sometimes  termed  the  "Elohistic  prophetic," 
so  entitled  because  up  to  the  record  of  the  divine  revela- 
tion to  Moses  it  applies  to  Deity  the  name  "Elohim." 
This  document  originated  with  the  prophets  of  the  north- 
ern kingdom,  and  as  a  chief  designation  of  this  kingdom 
was  "Ephraim,"  the  title  "Ephraimite  prophetic"  is  a 
very  fitting  one  for  its  narratives.  These  narratives 
begin  with  the  divine  covenant  with  Abraham  (Gen.  15). 
They  run  largely  parallel  with  the  Judaic  stories,  but 
lay  much  more  emphasis  upon  the  characters  and  inci- 
dents of  the  northern  kingdom  than  is  true  of  the  Judean 
narratives.  This  document  gives  evidence  of  being  some- 
what later  in  its  composition  than  its  Judean  parallel. 
Its  writers  lay  great  stress  upon  the  theocratic  character 
of  Israel,  and  emphasize  the  importance  to  the  national 
life  of  the  prophetic  function.  The  prophet  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  God  to  the  people  is  greatly  more  an 
important  character  than  either  secular  ruler  or  priest. 
The  purport  largely  of  the  writing  is  to  impress  the 
lesson  that  when  the  nation  has  listened  to  the  voice 
of  God's  messenger,  the  prophet,  prosperity  and  bless- 
ings have  ensued,  and  that  when  this  voice  has  been 
disregarded  disaster  has  resulted.     The  anthropomorphic 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  117 

conception  of  Deity  as  set  forth  in  the  Judean  is  almost 
entirely  absent  from  these  Ephraimite  narratives.  Only 
to  Moses  does  God  show  himself  face  to  face.  The 
prophet  stands  between  God  and  the  people  as  the 
bearer  of  the  divine  message.  In  the  view  of  these 
northern  writers,  as  apparently  distinct  from  the  southern 
standpoint,  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  were  idolaters. 
The  most  probable  date  to  be  assigned  to  the  collection 
of  these  narratives  is  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century  B.  C.  This  document  is  critically  designated 
as"E." 

The  northern  kingdom  fell  before  the  Assyrians  in 
722  B.  C.  After  this  the  southern  school  of  prophets 
became  the  custodians  of  the  northern  records,  and 
it  is  to  this  school  that  we  must  assign  the  editorial 
combination  of  the  Judean  and  Ephraimite  stories  into 
one  document.  The  combination  of  these  two  docu- 
ments into  one  narrative  marks  one  of  the  most  provi- 
dential events  in  the  history  of  the  Old  Testament. 
We  have  thus  preserved  to  us  in  their  original  form  the 
oldest  literary  records  of  the  Bible.  It  is  this  combina- 
tion which  accounts  largely  for  the  many  duplicate 
and  variant  narratives  which  characterize  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  editors  probably 
took  considerable  liberty  with  the  original  statements 
as  they  found  them,  generally  in  events  of  greatest 
interest  retaining  both  narratives,  frequently  retaining 
only  the  seemingly  better  statement  of  an  event,  and 
sometimes  transferring  a  narrative  to  a  position  which 
would  seem  to  them  better  suited  to  the  real  order  of 
events.  The  indications  are  that  the  combination  of 
the  documents  J  and  E  was  completed  before  the  Baby- 


n8      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Ionian  exile,  and  may  most  probably  be  assigned  to  a 
date  somewhere  in  the  latter  half  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury B.  C.  This  combined  document  is  critically  desig- 
nated as  "JE." 

At  a  still  later  period,  probably  prior  to,  possibly 
within,  the  age  of  the  Babylonian  exile,  the  members 
of  a  school,  now  designated  as  the  "late  prophets," 
devoted  themselves  to  reformulating  and  readapting  the 
laws  of  Israel  to  the  then  existing  conditions  of  national 
life.  The  body  of  their  work  appears  in  the  book  of 
Deuteronomy.  The  authorship  of  this  book  has  been 
traditionally  attributed  to  Moses.  It  deals  largely  with 
the  sayings  which  he  is  made  to  utter,  as  also  with 
laws  which  are  assumed  to  have  proceeded  from  him. 
Even  if  many  of  these  sayings  and  laws  found  a  first 
utterance  with  Moses,  yet,  for  reasons  which  in  them- 
selves seem  entirely  convincing,  it  is  clear,  say  our 
modern  authorities,  that  he  could  not  have  been  the 
author  of  this  book.  For  reasons  equally  convincing., 
it  is  evident  that  the  book  must  be  the  product  of  a 
period  or  periods  far  later  than  that  of  Moses.  But  if 
Moses  was  not  the  author  of  Deuteronomy  as  we  now 
have  it,  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  character  of  its 
real  author,  who  seems  to  speak  as  though  he  were 
uttering  at  first  hand  the  very  words  of  Moses?  It 
should  be  first  borne  in  mind  that  the  book  nowhere 
directly  claims  Moses  as  its  author.  A  further  fact  is 
that  the  practice  of  attributing  direct  sayings  to  prom- 
inent characters  is  a  very  common  usage  among  Old 
Testament,  and  indeed  other  ancient,  writers.  In  the 
book  of  Chronicles,  David  and  Solomon,  for  instance, 
are   often   made   to   express   themselves   through   ideas 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  119 

and  idioms  which  are  of  a  distinctly  later  age  than 
their  own.  The  author  of  Deuteronomy,  then,  would 
be  guilty  of  no  violence  against  the  accepted  literary 
customs  of  his  times  in  putting  his  own  words  into 
the  mouth  of  Moses.  Especially  is  this  true  when  we 
remember  that  he  was  actuated  by  no  thought  of  him- 
self as  a  mere  inventor  of  the  matter  which  he  wrote. 
He  doubtless  was  dealing  with  a  body  of  utterances 
and  laws  already  ancient.  It  was  a  body  of  sacred 
tradition  which  had  come  down  from  the  highest  sources. 
In  the  emergencies  that  were  now  upon  the  nation 
the  counsels  of  its  greatest  lawgiver,  and  especially 
the  highest  moral  statutes  for  the  government  of  Israel, 
required  reiteration  in  direct  and  intensified  form,  in 
a  form  adapted  to  meet  the  tendencies  of  the  particular 
age  to  which  this  prophet-author — possibly  school  of 
authors — addressed  himself. 

The  nation  had  most  ungratefully  fallen  away  from 
God  into  corrupting  idolatries.  It  was  already  suffering, 
and  was  perhaps  to  suffer  further,  the  dreadful  penalties 
of  apostasy.  It  was  a  time  for  the  sharpest  arraignment 
of  transgressors,  and  for  prophetic  summons  of  the 
nation  to  righteousness.  The  sinning  people  needed 
to  be  stirred  to  a  sense  of  their  sinfulness  as  under  the 
lightning  flashes  and  thunder-trumpets  of  Sinai.  The 
God  of  Israel  had  been  a  covenant-keeping  God.  He 
had  never  failed  in  his  regard  for  his  covenant  people. 
He  had  been  Father,  Friend,  and  Protector  to  them 
always.  When  the  people  were  obedient  to  his  com- 
mandments the  nation  had  been  strong,  prosperous, 
and  happy.  It  was  only  the  departure  of  the  nation 
from  his  righteous  ways  that  had  brought  down  upon 


i2o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

itself  the  stroke  and  the  scourge  of  disaster.  The  voice 
to  Israel  was:  "What  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require 
of  thee,  but  to  fear  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  walk  in  all 
his  ways,  and  to  love  him,  and  to  serve  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul,  to  keep 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  and  his  statutes." 

It  was  in  the  spirit  of  a  recall  to  righteousness  of  a 
sinning  and  apostate  nation  that  the  book  of  Deuteronomy 
was  written.  And,  though  it  voiced  chiefly  an  old 
message,  it  came  now  clothed  in  the  clearest  spiritual 
thought,  and  with  the  loftiest  moral  appeals  of  any 
prophetic  message  which  thus  far  in  its  national  his- 
tory had  come  to  Israel.  And  Deuteronomy,  while  it 
takes  up  into  itself  very  much  from  preceding  thought 
and  suggestion,  is  distinct.  It  is  the  product  of  special 
conditions,  of  an  age  and  a  school  which  stand  by  them- 
selves. It  represents,  on  the  whole,  the  highest  plane 
of  prophetical  inspiration  yet  reached  by  Israel's  teachers. 
The  influence  of  the  law  school  of  prophets  from  which 
this  book  sprang  makes  itself  decisively  felt  in  the  Old 
Testament  books  which  were  produced  contempora- 
neously or  subsequent  to  its  own  appearance.  The  date 
of  its  origin  is  probably  not  far  from  the  middle  of  the 
sixth  century  B.  C.  The  document  which  bears  the 
stamp  of  this  school  of  prophetic  authorship  is  desig- 
nated as  "D." 

Of  the  four  fundamental  documents  which  underlie 
the  historic  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  last  in 
the  order  of  development  is  that  which  contains  the 
priestly  narratives.  Until  in  comparatively  recent  times 
the  narratives  which  are  grouped  under  this  document 
were  supposed  to  represent  the  oldest  records  in  Hebrew 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  12 1 

literature.  The  reversal  of  this  view,  however,  is  now 
universally  accepted  by  the  critical  schools.  The  evi- 
dence is  well-nigh  conclusive  that  neither  the  authors 
of  J,  E,  nor  D  know  anything  whatsoever  of  P.  This, 
however,  is  but  one  of  many  features  which  prove  that 
in  the  order  of  their  development  P  is  the  latest  of  the 
documents.  This  document  was  composed  evidently  by 
an  order  of  priests  who  wrote  in  the  interests  of  main- 
taining a  hierarchical  construction  of  the  Israelitish 
theocracy.  Its  style  is  without  poetry.  It  is  written 
in  defense  of  institutions  and  rites.  Its  authors  were 
lovers  of  law  and  ritual.  They  idealized  the  stories  of 
the  earlier  Judean  prophetic  narratives,  and  the  laws 
as  designated  in  Deuteronomy,  translating  them  in 
terms  of  ultra-priestly  conception.  Without  the  knowl- 
edge which  would  qualify  them  for  the  task  of  the  crit- 
ical historian,  they  doubtless  sincerely  believed  that  the 
usages  and  laws  which  they  so  idealized  had  been  in 
vogue  since  the  foundations  of  their  national  history. 
Their  class  preferences  and  habits  of  mind  were  such 
as  to  lead  them  to  magnify  the  priestly  elements  in  the 
national  religion.  They  exalted  Moses  into  a  character 
altogether  in  excess  of  what  would  be  justified  by  the 
other  records,  making  of  him  a  very  demigod.  "With 
the  exception  of  the  Sabbath  and  circumcision,  all  of 
Israel's  laws  and  institutions,  from  the  earliest  to  the 
latest,  are  traced  directly  to  him."  The  anthropomorphic 
views  of  God  so  current  in  the  prophetic  narratives 
are  entirely  absent  from  this  document.  God  is  empha- 
sized as  a  Spirit,  omnipotent,  not  working  through 
mediating  processes,  but  both  creating  and  governing 
at  will  by  the  fiat  of  his  word.     At  Sinai  are  seen  and 


i22       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

heard  the  lightning  and  the  thunders  of  his  power,  but 
his  personality  is  veiled  in  clouds  and  mystery. 

The  writers  of  this  document  are  doubtless  of  the 
influential  priestly  class  belonging  to  the  period  of 
the  Babylonian  exile.  Numerous  features  of  the  nar- 
ratives would  indicate  the  contact  of  these  writers 
with  Babylonish  thought.  Many  of  the  ceremonial 
types  enjoined  are  such  as  are  known  to  have  been 
shared  by  the  later  Jews  and  the  Babylonians.  Its 
stories  of  creation  and  the  flood  show  a  decidedly  Baby- 
lonish origin.  The  idealizing,  under  priestly  preposses- 
sions, of  the  early  history  is  a  process  that  might  be 
very  natural  to  men  who  themselves  were  dwelling 
apart  from  the  direct  movements  of  the  national  life. 
The  probabilities  are  that  the  narratives  of  this  docu- 
ment were  not  all  written  in  one  close  period.  Like 
all  other  narratives  which  have  been  discussed,  these 
would  be  gathered  gradually,  and  would  be  subject 
from  time  to  time  to  new  additions  and  to  editorial 
emendations.  They  were  probably  substantially  com- 
pleted at  some  time  during  the  latter  half  of  the  fifth 
century  B.  C.     This  document  is  designated  as  "P." 

There  remains  to  be  noted  one  other  step  in  the  final 
process  of  securing  the  early  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  the  form  in  which  we  now  have  them.  This 
is  the  editorial  work  by  which  were  united  in  a  common 
product  the  narratives  of  the  priestly  document  with 
the  already  combined  prophetic  narratives.  This  final 
work  bears  evidence  of  having  been  done  by  one  or 
more  of  the  priestly  order.  While  it  is  evident  that 
this  editorial  worker — or  workers — was  interested  espe- 
cially to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  priestly  narratives, 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  123 

yet  the  service  rendered  was  of  the  highest  possible 
importance,  for  to  it  we  are  doubtless  indebted  for 
the  preservation  of  the  older  traditions  of  Hebrew 
history.  The  canonization  of  the  first  five  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  followed  soon  after  this  work,  and 
not  later  than  200  B.  C.  the  entire  first  eight  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  were  in  the  canon,  and  thus  to  the 
present  time  the  integrity  of  their  form  has  been  sacredly 
and  jealously  guarded. 

Thus,  in  this  chapter  I  have  endeavored  to  reflect 
concisely  and  faithfully  the  story  of  the  documentary 
theory  of  the  Old  Testament  historical  books  as  this 
theory  is  now  held  by  the  schools  of  biblical  criticism. 
I  am,  of  course,  quite  aware  of  the  application  of  the 
critical  process  to  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  traverse  this  process  in  its 
relations,  for  instance,  to  Isaiah  and  to  Daniel.  But 
while  it  seems  indubitable  that  Isaiah  cannot  be  the 
work  of  a  single  author,  but  the  product  of  different 
authors  and  of  distinct  periods,  and  that  Daniel  is 
certainly  one  of  the  latest  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
I  have  not  deemed  it  necessary  for  my  present  purpose 
to  pursue  a  further  delineation  of  this  critical  work  5 
nor  have  I  thought  it  of  importance  that  I  should  make 
any  detailed  statement  of  points  in  which  I  might  agree 
with,  or  dissent  from,  the  critical  positions  as  above 
set  forth. 

A  final  and  general  word  should  perhaps  be  given 
concerning  the  documentary  theory  itself.  The  results 
which  this  theory  presents  require  for  the  full  appre- 
ciation of  their  value  and  significance  a  careful  and 
judicial    mental    survey   of   the    processes    from   which 


i24      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

they  have  sprung.  These  processes  have  not  been 
haphazard;  they  have  not  been  developed  impulsively, 
or  by  rapid  hothouse  methods,  in  accordance  with 
the  demands  of  any  one  school  of  critics.  They  repre- 
sent more  than  a  century  of  sifting  and  painstaking 
work  by  many  scholarly  groups,  and  of  widely  sundered 
countries.  There  is  not  a  single  step  in  what  are  now 
accepted  as  "assured  results"  which  has  not  been  stoutly 
challenged.  Every  conclusion  reached  has  been  first 
tested  as  in  furnace  fires.  All  the  ground  has  been 
traversed  and  retra versed  by  both  friends  and  foes. 
Nothing  has  been  accepted  as  settled  until  it  has  met 
the  requirements  of  overwhelming  tests.  The  history 
of  this  theory  shows  that  many  l^potheses  have  been 
proposed  which  in  turn  have  had  to  be  rejected.  This 
is  but  a  repetition  in  history  of  what  has  been  true  in 
the  establishment  of  all  great  working  laws.  Kepler 
spent  many  years,  years  of  enormous  toil,  in  ascer- 
taining the  laws  of  the  planetary  motions.  In  these 
years  he  tried  many  tentative  hypotheses,  most  of 
which  he  had  to  abandon.  But  he  profited  by  his 
very  miscalculations.  His  pursuit  brought  him  ever 
nearer  to  the  truth.  Finally  he  found  the  true  key 
to  the  law  of  the  heavens.  He  had  put  a  new  book 
in  the  canon  of  science.  In  his  exultation  he  could 
say:  "The  die  is  cast,  the  book  is  written  to  be  read 
now  or  by  posterity,  I  care  not  which.  It  may  well 
wait  a  century  for  a  reader,  since  God  has  waited  six 
thousand  years  for  a  discoverer."  So  it  may  be  said 
of  the  documentary  theory  of  the  Old  Testament.  It 
so  fully  meets  the  demands  of  literary  criticism,  it  has 
been   reached    through   so   long   and    careful    processes 


OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS  125 

of  investigation,  it  so  represents  the  convergent  results 
wrought  by  different  schools  of  workers,  it  has  such 
general  approval  by  critical  authorities,  as  to  make 
it  utterly  improbable  that  the  theory  itself  will  ever 
be  displaced.  This  is  not  to  say  that  in  details  it  may 
not  be  further  developed  and  revised;  but  a  knowledge 
of  this  theory  will  henceforth  remain  a  sine  qua  non  to 
the  intelligent  understanding  of  the  historical  books  of 
the  Old  Testament. 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM 


127 


I  believe  the  four  Gospels  are  genuine;  for  I  see  in  them  an  emanation 
of  that  greatness  which  proceeded  from  the  person  of  Christ,  such  as 
was  never  before  manifested  on  earth. — Goethe. 

It  is  more  inconceivable  that  several  men  should  have  united  to 
forge  the  gospel  than  that  a  single  person  should  have  furnished  the 
subject  of  it.  The  marks  of  its  truth  are  so  striking  and  inimitable 
that  the  inventor  would  be  more  astonishing  than  the  hero. — Rousseau. 

The  higher  criticism  is  but  a  name  for  scientific  scholarship  scien- 
tifically used.  Grant  such  scholarship  legitimate,  and  the  legitimacy 
of  its  use  to  all  fit  subjects  must  also  be  granted.  Nobody  denies, 
nobody  even  doubts,  the  legitimacy  of  its  application  to  classical  or 
ethnic  literature,  the  necessity  or  the  excellence  of  the  work  it  has 
done,  or,  where  the  material  allowed  of  it,  the  accuracy  of  the  results 
it  has  achieved.  .  .  .  To  grant  that  many  of  its  conclusions  are  arbi- 
trary, provisional,  or  problematical,  is  simply  to  say  that  it  is  a  human 
science,  created  by  men,  worked  by  men,  yet  growing  ever  more  per- 
fect with  their  mastery  of  their  material.  Now,  the  Scriptures  either 
are  or  are  not  fit  subjects  for  scholarship.  If  they  are  not,  then  all 
sacred  scholarship  has  been  and  is  a  mistake,  and  they  are  a  body  of 
literature  possessed  of  the  inglorious  distinction  of  being  incapable 
of  being  understood.  If  they  are,  then  the  more  scientific  the  scholar- 
ship the  greater  its  use  in  the  field  of  Scripture,  and  the  more  it  is 
reverently  exercised  on  a  literature  that  can  claim  to  be  the  preeminent 
sacred  literature  of  the  world,  the  more  will  that  literature  be  honored. 
— A.  M.  Fairbairn. 

The  Bible  has  the  qualities  claimed  for  it  as  an  inspired  book. 
These  qualities,  on  the  other  hand,  nothing  but  inspiration  could 
impart.  It  leads  to  God  and  to  Christ;  it  gives  light  on  the  deepest 
problems  of  life,  death,  and  eternity;  it  discovers  the  way  of  deliver- 
ance from  sin;  it  makes  men  new  creatures;  it  furnishes  the  man  of 
God  completely  for  every  good  work.  That  it  possesses  these  good 
qualities  history  and  experience  through  all  the  centuries  have  attested ; 
its  saving,  satisfying,  and  civilizing  effects  among  all  races  of  men  in 
the  world  attest  it  still.  The  word  of  God  is  a  "pure  word."  It  is  a 
true  and  "tried"  word;  a  word  never  found  wanting  by  those  who 
rest  themselves  upon  it.  The  Bible  that  embodies  this  word  will 
retain  its  distinction  as  the  Book  of  Inspiration  till  the  end  of  time. — 
Professor  James  Orr. 


128 


CHAPTER  IX 
NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM 

The  long-drawn  battle  of  the  critics  has  been  fought 
largely  around  the  foundations  of  the  New  Testament. 
As  to  the  vital  character  of  the  New  Testament  literature, 
no  testimony  could  be  more  emphatic  or  explicit  than 
that  which  is  furnished  in  the  history  of  the  critical 
movement.  The  entire  process  through  which  the 
New  Testament  has  come  to  us  in  its  present  form 
may  properly  be  said  to  have  been  critical. 

The  selection  of  the  New  Testament  books  was  a 
matter  of  slow  growth,  and  was  decided  by  a  general 
spiritual  consensus  of  the  Church  rather  than  by  edict 
of  official  authority.  The  test  on  which  any  book 
was  received  was  its  assumed  apostolic  authorship, 
or  at  least  that  it  be  written  by  a  man  himself  of  apos- 
tolic character,  one  personally  familiar  with  first  sources 
of  things  concerning  which  he  wrote.  Mark  and  Luke, 
for  instance,  would  meet  required  conditions  of  such 
authorship.  The  books  received  by  common  consent 
into  the  body  of  the  New  Testament,  like  those  of  the 
Old  Testament,  were  made  up  of  three  distinct  groups 
— the  Gospels,  the  Pauline  Epistles,  and  the  other 
books.  In  the  order  of  authorship  the  Pauline  Epistles, 
or  at  least  several  of  them,  are  the  oldest  contributions 
to  New  Testament  literature.  The  first  general  division 
of  the  accepted  books  included  the  four  Gospels,  Acts, 
thirteen  Epistles  ascribed  to  Saint  Paul,  the  First  Epis- 
tles respectively  of  John  and  Peter. 

129 


i3o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

The'  Muratori  Fragment,  probably  a  document  of 
the  Roman  Church,  a  very  ancient  manuscript  discovered 
by  Muratori  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury in  the  Ambrosian  Library  of  Milan,  which  reflects 
most  valuable  light  on  the  early  histoiy  of  the  New 
Testament,  includes  in  addition  to  the  above  Second 
John,  the  book  of  Revelation,  and  Jude.  As  early  as 
170  A.  D.,  Hebrews,  Second  Peter,  and  Third  John 
were  also  very  generally  used  among  the  New  Testa- 
ment books.  There  was,  however,  much  doubt  expressed 
as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Second  and  Third  Epistles 
and  the  Apocalypse  of  John,  the  Epistles  of  Jude  and 
of  James,  and  especially  the  second  of  Peter.  The 
assumed  Pauline  authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, while  accepted  by  the  Greek  and  Syrian  Churches, 
was  rejected  by  the  Western  Church.  Aside  from  these 
writings,  held  by  many  to  be  of  doubtful  authority, 
there  was  a  great  mass  of  early  literature  consisting  of 
Gospels,  Acts,  Epistles,  much  or  all  of  it  claiming  apos- 
tolic authority.  It  required  a  truly  critical  process 
to  eliminate  the  genuine  literature  from  this  mass. 
The  period  of  uncertainty  concerning  books  which 
should  be  admitted  to  the  New  Testament  continued 
at  least  till  the  end  of  the  fourth  century. 

The  term  "canon"  is  very  commonly  used  in  relation 
to  the  New  Testament  as  indicating  an  authoritatively 
definite  list  of  its  accepted  books.  The  term  in  this 
sense  needs  to  be  very  guardedly  used.  It  seems  to 
be  a  historic  fact  that  no  general  council  of  the  Church 
ever  officially  decided  as  to  the  books  which  should 
make  up  a  New  Testament  canon.  The  Council  of 
Trent  in   1546  made  such  a  pronouncement.     But  the 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM 


131 


decision  of  this  council,  so  far  as  its  critical  or  moral 
values  are  concerned,  is  not  to  be  seriously  taken  by 
the  Christian  world  at  large.  Rome  at  this  time  was 
disturbed  by  the  Reformation,  and  had  a  pressing 
expedient  demand  for  an  authoritative  statement  as  to 
the  books  of  the  Bible.  It,  therefore,  settled  its  canon 
of  the  Old  Testament  by  adding  the  Apocrypha  to 
the  list  as  we  now  have  it;  and  it  affirmed  for  the  New 
Testament  canon  the  list  which  now  appears  in  the 
common  Bible.  This  same  council  decreed  as  the 
"authentic"  text  of  the  Bible  the  Latin  text  in  use 
by  its  leaders,  though,  as  is  well  known,  the  Latin  edi- 
tion then  in  use  was  exceedingly  defective  in  its  readings 
and  inaccurate  as  a  translation.  It  is  to  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  Council  of  Trent  at  the  time  of  its 
sitting  was  representative  of  only  a  section  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church. 

To  a  period  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  second  century 
there  is  not  the  slightest  historic  evidence  of  official 
declaration  as  to  the  canonicity  of  any  single  book  or 
books  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Synod  of  Hippo, 
in  North  Africa,  in  which  Augustine  was  most  influ- 
ential, meeting  in  the  year  393  A.  D.,  gave  its  sanction 
to  the  entire  list  of  books  as  they  now  appear.  The 
Council  of  Carthage,  meeting  four  years  later,  adopted 
the  same  list,  the  only  difference  being  that  this  council 
ascribed  to  Saint  Paul  the  authorship  of  fourteen  Epistles, 
including  that  to  the  Hebrews,  while  the  Council  of 
Hippo  left  the  authorship  of  Hebrews  an  open  question. 
Neither  of  these  councils  was  ecumenical  in  its  character. 

It  is  to  be  emphasized  that  what  is  termed  the  New 
Testament   canon  was   never  so   much  settled   by  the 


i32      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

decisions  of  councils  as  by  the  discriminating  spiritual 
sense  of  the  Church.  It  was  by  this  process  that  there 
were  finally  winnowed  and  selected  from  a  great  volume 
of  competing  literature  the  accepted  books  of  the  New 
Testament.  In  this  respect  it  was  never  the  function 
of  councils  to  do  more  than  to  place  the  final  seal  of 
official  ratification  upon  the  books  thus  selected.  In 
their  superlative  spiritual  and  moral  qualities  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament  are  unapproached,  and  in  their 
selection  from  associated  literatures,  claiming  apostolic 
character,  they  certainly  give  evidence  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  so  much  so  that  this  selection  itself  would 
seem  to  have  been  guided  by  the  spirit  of  highest 
inspiration. 

TEXTUAL  CRITICISM 

In  considering  the  history  of  the  New  Testament 
text  some  facts  should  be  distinctly  remembered.  In 
the  first  place,  not  a  single  original  manuscript,  or  frag- 
ment of  one,  of  any  of  the  books  is  now  known  to  be 
in  existence.  While  it  is  true  that  the  New  Testament 
rests  upon  far  better  foundations  of  evidence  than  any 
other  ancient  prose  writings,  we  have  to-day  no  man- 
uscript copies  earlier  than  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century.  These  copies  were,  of  course,  made  from 
still  older  manuscripts,  but  the  earlier  manuscripts 
have  all  perished.  Second,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  New  Testament  originated  long  before  the 
days  of  printed  books.  The  only  way  by  which  its 
literary  form  could  be  preserved  was  through  manuscript 
copies.  For  its  books  the  Church  far  and  near  was 
entirely  dependent  upon  handmade  copies.  A  copy  of 
the    New   Testament   for   private   individual   ownership 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  133 

would  be  a  rare  and  costly  luxury.  The  books  were, 
however,  read  in  the  assemblies  for  public  worship, 
and  were  doubtless  mostly  held  in  the  custody  of  pastors 
and  teachers.  The  early  Church  was  distributed  over 
three  continents,  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  With  mul- 
tiplying congregations  the  demand  for  manuscript  copies 
of  the  New  Testament  was  correspondingly  increased. 

In  the  process  of  making  these  many  manuscripts 
there  would  naturally  arise,  even  after  making  largest 
allowance  for  conscientious  and  painstaking  care  on 
the  part  of  copyists,  much  certainty  of  variations  and 
mistakes.  These  variations  in  large  part  would  come 
from  unintentional  causes,  such  as  misreading,  failure 
of  memory,  or,  in  case  of  dictation,  mishearing.  But 
it  is  probable  that  in  cases  of  early  manuscript-making 
variations  frequently  arose  from  intended  corrections  in 
existing  copy.  These  early  manuscripts  would  fall  into 
the  hands  of  persons  who  earned  in  memory  the  oral 
traditions  of  the  sayings  of  Christ  and  the  apostles. 
Naturally,  they  would  sometimes  interpolate  or  write 
upon  the  margins  their  own  memory  versions  of  given 
utterances.  They  would  feel  entirely  free  to  do  this, 
for,  it  must  be  remembered,  these  New  Testament 
documents  had  not  in  that  early  time  acquired  the 
status  of  verbally  inspired  writings,  as  was  assigned  to 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  It  is  evident,  also,  that  by 
some  such  process  occasional  passages  found  their  way 
into  some  of  the  early  manuscripts  that  had  no  place 
in  the  original  writings,  as,  for  instance,  the  narrative 
of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  as  found  in  John  (7.  53 
to  8.  11). 

The  Greek  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament  which 


i34       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

have  come  into  possession  of  modern  scholars  are  very 
numerous,  numbering  now  considerably  more  than  two 
thousand,  and  with  the  likelihood  that  still  others  may 
be  discovered.  In  this  large  list  of  manuscripts  the 
textual  variations  number  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand.  Yet  it  is  from  this  field  of  more  than 
two  thousand  old  manuscript  copies,  with  their  bewil- 
dering variations  of  texts,  that  modern  scholarship  is 
to  find,  if  at  all,  the  original  New  Testament  Scriptures. 
This  background  must  neither  be  misunderstood  nor 
minified.  The  modern  critic  did  not  create  it;  he  is 
in  no  way  responsible  for  its  existence.  This  is  simply 
the  existing  wilderness  which  he  must  traverse  if  he 
is  to  reach  surefootedly  the  original  of  inspired  New 
Testament  utterance. 

The  difficulties,  however,  of  the  situation  should  not 
be  converted  in  popular  thought  into  an  insuperable 
fatality.  The  great  wealth  of  documents  is  in  itself 
an  unqualified  testimony  to  the  priceless  values  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  true  text  surely  lies  in  these 
multitudes  of  readings.  Their  very  numbers  give  to 
the  New  Testament  an  advantage,  so  far  as  ascertaining 
its  true  meaning  is  concerned,  over  any  ancient  writings 
in  existence.  And,  while  the  variations  run  into  high 
numbers,  a  knowledge  of  their  essential  character  greatly 
minifies  a  view  which  might  otherwise  exist  as  to  their 
damaging  qualities.  Professor  Hort,  than  whom  no 
better  authority  can  be  quoted,  estimates  that  of  all 
words  composing  the  Greek  Testament  fully  seven 
eighths  are  established  beyond  doubt.  The  work  of 
the  textual  critic,  then,  would  be  confined  to  the  remain- 
ing one  eighth.     In  this  section  a  very  large  proportion 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  135 

of  the  variations  consists  in  the  mere  order  of  words 
and  in  differences  of  spelling — trifles  in  themselves. 
These  duly  considered,  he  thinks  that  the  words  still 
subject  to  doubt  do  not  constitute  more  than  one  sixtieth 
of  the  New  Testament.  Examination  of  variations  in 
this  remnant  shows  that  most  of  them,  as  affecting 
the  meaning  of  the  text,  are  of  slight  importance.  His 
final  judgment  is  that  the  field  covering  substantial 
variations  "can  hardly  form  more  than  a  one-thousandth 
part  of  the  entire  text."  The  fact  seems  to  be  that 
all  the  manuscripts  teach  the  same  Christianity  with- 
out impairment  of  either  its  doctrinal  or  moral  pre- 
cepts. Dr.  Ezra  Abbot,  who  in  his  day  ranked  foremost 
among  the  textual  critics,  asserts  that  "no  Christian 
doctrine  or  duty  rests  on  these  portions  of  the  text 
which  are  affected  by  differences  in  the  manuscripts; 
still  less  is  anything  essential  in  Christianity  touched 
by  the  various  readings." 

This  analysis  is  reassuring.  It  is  adapted  to  give 
comfort  to  those  who,  knowing  merely  that  there  is 
a  great  number  of  variant  readings  in  the  manuscripts, 
might  otherwise  assume  that  the  entire  structure  of 
the  New  Testament  is  honeycombed  with  irreconcilable 
inharmonies.  The  great  task  of  the  textual  student  is 
hunting  down  through  all  these  variations  to  find,  if 
possible,  the  bed-rock  of  original  utterance.  The  motive 
which  prompts  this  pursuit  is  the  most  commendable 
possible.  The  ideal  that  always  lures  to  best  work  is 
that  of  perfection  itself.  The  artist  cannot  resign  his 
easel  while  conscious  that  imperfections  linger  upon 
his  picture.  The  present  maker  of  the  automobile  seeks 
to  surpass  in  beauty  of  model,   in  strength,   in  speed, 


i36       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

in  noiseless  harmony  of  movement,  the  product  made 
by  any  of  his  competitors.  For  our  worship  we  build 
churches  of  artistic  costliness,  and  we  covet  for  their 
pulpits  men  of  finished  scholarship  and  of  persuasive 
utterance.  Here  is  the  New  Testament,  the  foundation 
on  which  all  Christian  worship  rests.  If  it  be  true  that 
this  book  contains  God's  most  precious  revelation  of  him- 
self to  men ;  if  it  be  true  that  its  original  words  were  writ- 
ten by  men  divinely  inspired,  then  certainly  it  would  seem 
that  there  could  be  no  higher  pursuit  to  which  Christian 
scholarship  may  consecrate  itself  than  the  search  for  the 
very  original  New  Testament  word  of  apostle  and  evan- 
gelist.    And  this  is  what  textual  criticism  means. 

The  importance  of  the  work  itself  is  only  equaled 
by  the  spirit  of  thoroughness  in  which  it  has  been  pros- 
ecuted. Not  only  has  every  distinct  manuscript  been 
closely  examined,  but  every  sentence,  every  word,  every 
spelling,  every  mark  of  punctuation,  has  been  subjected 
to  microscopic  scrutiny.  The  work  of  all  schools  has 
been  submitted  to  such  cross-examination  and  review 
as  to  make  it  seem  impossible  that  any  single  teacher 
could  have  escaped  critical  attention.  This  work  is 
modern.  Indeed,  its  possibilities  did  not  exist  until 
in  recent  times.  At  the  period  of  the  Reformation  the 
number  of  scholars  in  all  Europe  who  could  read  Hebrew 
and  Greek  were  exceedingly  few.  The  first  printed 
Greek  Testament  in  existence  was  that  of  Erasmus, 
published  at  Basle,  Switzerland,  in  1516.  The  number 
of  manuscripts  employed  by  Erasmus  in  the  succeeding 
editions  of  his  work  did  not  exceed  altogether  more 
than  eight.  For  the  book  of  Revelation  he  was  depend- 
ent upon  a  mutilated  and  incomplete  manuscript  which 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  137 

he  borrowed  from  Reuchlin.  For  the  missing  parts  of 
this  book  he  made  a  translation  into  poor  Greek  from 
the  Latin  Vulgate.  The  text  of  Erasmus  was  for  a 
long  period  the  ruling  text.  In  1633  the  Elzevir  pub- 
lishers of  Leyden  and  Amsterdam  issued  a  Greek  Testa- 
ment corrected  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge  and  by 
such  critical  help  as  they  could  command.  In  the 
preface  of  this  book  they  entered  this  statement  in 
Latin:  "Therefore  thou  hast  the  text  now  received 
by  all:  in  which  we  give  nothing  altered  or  corrupt." 

Thus  was  introduced  the  famous  "Textus  Receptus," 
which,  with  slight  exceptions,  was  accepted  for  two 
centuries  as  the  orthodox  standard  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment original.  This  text,  as  we  now  know,  was  very 
defective,  but  it  was  prevalently  accepted  until  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Professor  Karl  Lach- 
mann,  of  Berlin,  bringing  great  scholarship  and  ability 
to  his  task,  sought  in  prolonged  effort  to  restore  the 
oldest  text.  He  did  not  have  at  command  some  of 
the  greatest  aids  which  have  since  been  discovered 
for  such  a  work;  but  he  established  a  new  basis  for 
textual  criticism  of  the  New  Testament.  He  died  in 
1 85 1.  Following  there  appear  in  this  field  of  work 
the  illustrious  names  of  Tischendorf,  Tregelles,  Westcott, 
and  Hort.  These  have  all  followed  in  the  course  marked 
by  Lachmann,  but  have  had  the  great  advantage  of 
aids  which  to  him  were  quite  or  comparatively  unknown. 
The  now  famous  codices,  Sinaiticus,  Alexandrinus, 
Vaticanus,  and  others  only  second  in  importance  to 
these,  have  thrown  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  text 
origins  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Codices  Sinaiticus 
and   Vaticanus   especially   are   supposed   to   reflect   the 


i33      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

original  text  more  closely  than  any  other  manuscripts 
now  known.  The  history  of  these  codices  reads  like 
a  romance.  All  of  these  manuscripts  were  accessible 
to  the  later  workers  above  named. 

It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  the  work  of  textual 
revision  of  the  New  Testament  is  now  finally  complete. 
Other  corrective  sources  of  information  may  yet  be 
discovered,  but  it  may  be  confidently  asserted  that  the 
field  of  possible  corrections  in  the  interests  of  a  pure 
text  has  been  greatly  narrowed  by  the  work  of  recent 
scholarship.  These  modern  workers  have  summoned  to 
their  court  of  inquiry  witnesses  from  all  accessible 
sources,  and  have  given  most  exhaustive  and  searching 
analysis  to  all  testimony  received.  While  there  are 
minor  points  here  and  there  of  uncertainty,  the  general 
results  now  reached  have  come  through  processes  so 
enlightened,  and  are  based  upon  a  critical  judgment 
so  unanimous,  as  to  place  their  finality  beyond  serious 
question.  As  for  the  outcome  of  all,  there  can  be  no 
intelligent  doubt  that  there  is  now  placed  at  the  com- 
mand of  every  thoughtful  reader  of  the  New  Testament 
a  text  more  reliably  in  harmony  with  original  sources 
than  was  ever  before  accessible.  It  remains  to  be  said 
that  only  in  the  proportion  in  which  a  correct  text  of 
the  priceless  records  of  the  New  Testament  is  to  be 
regarded  as  valuable  can  we  find  the  just  measure  of 
the  worth  and  service  of  that  scholarship  which  has 
so  far  brought  about  this  result. 

LITERARY    HISTORY 

It  is  no  overstatement  to  say  that  no  historic  move- 
ment  of   thought   has   been   more   significant   in   itself, 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  139 

or  has  been  more  implicitly  fraught  with  great  moral 
consequences,  than  has  that  of  biblical  criticism.  To 
the  vital  center  of  all  this  movement  the  New  Testa- 
ment has  stood  nearest.  Its  records  by  an  instinct 
both  of  gratitude  and  of  defense  have  in  the  common 
thought  of  the  Church  been  most  jealously  cherished. 
It  has  been  religiously  felt  that  the  New  Testament 
in  a  distinctive  and  well-nigh  exclusive  sense  embodies 
in  itself  the  foundation  truths  of  the  Christian  faith. 
It  has  been  looked  upon  as  something  to  be  approached 
only  in  the  most  reverential  spirit.  There  has  been 
much  in  the  traditional  history  environing  the  book 
to  beget  this  popular  feeling.  It  has  been  thought  of 
as  the  infallible  record  of  God's  most  precious  revela- 
tion of  himself.  By  large  consent  it  has  been  thought 
a  thing  too  sacred  to  receive  any  touch  of  revision  from 
human  criticism.  The  very  attempt  would  be  an  act 
as  essentially  sacrilegious  as  to  reach  forth  a  profane 
hand  against  the  ark  of  the  Lord.  At  the  heart  of 
the  New  Testament  lies  the  story  of  the  One  Life  in 
which  God  himself  found  a  supreme  incarnation.  There 
the  deeds  of  this  matchless  life  are  related,  his  very 
words  recorded.  One  of  the  traditions  of  the  Koran 
is  that  it  was  written  in  heaven  near  by  the  eternal 
throne,  and  that  it  was  passed  by  angelic  hands  from 
the  table  on  which  it  rested  direct  into  the  keeping 
of  Mohammed's  messenger.  So  quite  naturally  in  the 
Church  there  has  been  a  cherished  estimate  of  the  New 
Testament  which  has  attached  to  it  all  the  sacredness 
of  a  book  which  might  actually  have  been  made  in 
heaven,  and  thence  passed  ready-made  for  human  uses. 
That  the  underlying  assumption  in  all  this  is  greatly 


140      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

fraught  with  error  in  no  way  affects  or  modifies  the 
feeling  itself.  This  feeling  was  not  born  of  a  critical 
parentage.  It  is  the  child  of  traditional  authority.  It 
has  been  nursed  and  developed  in  an  atmosphere  which 
repels  invasion  by  the  critical  spirit. 

It  is  indeed  difficult,  in  many  cases  practically  im- 
possible, for  minds  under  the  dominion  of  this  traditional 
feeling  to  understand  how  criticism  can  have  in  itself 
a  holy  function.  That  the  era  of  modern  biblical  criti- 
cism is  a  providential  movement,  is  for  the  Church 
and  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  fraught  with  divinest 
meaning,  is  for  such  minds  both  incredible  and  inexplain- 
able.  That  it  is  the  legitimate  mission,  a  high  duty 
of  the  modern  mind,  whose  vision  has  been  vastly  broad- 
ened and  quickened  by  new  revelations  of  science  and 
by  the  spirit  of  a  new  philosophy,  to  bring  to  the  New 
Testament  the  light  of  new  knowledge  and  of  more 
intelligent  interpretation,  is  something  for  which  the 
type  of  mind  in  question  has  no  hospitality.  That  it 
is  due  to  the  New  Testament  itself,  a  most  sacred  duty 
to  Christianity,  that  the  light  of  the  most  perfectly 
developed  scientific  and  critical  knowledge  should  be 
focused  upon  its  record  is  a  consideration  for  which  the 
mere  traditionalist  has  neither  welcome  nor  appreciation. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  dominion  of  traditional 
feeling,  here  or  there,  a  great  fact  is — a  fact  as  distinct 
as  the  sunrise  on  a  new  day — that  we  are  living  in  a 
distinctive  intellectual  age.  Dr.  John  Fiske  years  ago, 
in  his  little  book,  The  Idea  of  God,  said:  "In  their  mental 
habits,  in  their  methods  of  inquiry,  and  in  the  data 
at  their  command,  the  men  of  the  present  day  who 
have  fully  kept  pace  with  the  scientific  movement  are 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  141 

separated  from  the  men  whose  education  ended  in  1830 
by  an  immeasurably  wider  gulf  than  has  ever  before 
divided  one  progressive  generation  of  men  from  their 
predecessors." 

Whatever  the  duty  in  the  matter,  or  however  great 
the  advantage  of  results  to  be  achieved,  the  question 
of  the  introduction  of  a  period  of  critical  study  of  the 
New  Testament  was  not  primarily  one  to  be  decided 
by  Christian  scholarship.  It  was  a  question  which 
forced  itself  upon  the  attention  of  the  Church.  When 
in  1835  there  appeared  Strauss's  Life  of  Jesus  and  Baur's 
critical  hypotheses  on  the  Pastoral  Epistles  there  was 
sent  forth  a  challenge  which  was  heard  at  every  seat 
of  Christian  learning.  This  challenge  came  like  the 
booming  of  an  enemy's  cannon.  Under  the  brilliancy 
and  suddenness  of  the  assault,  the  first  sensation  of 
Christian  scholars  was  one  of  consternation.  This  was 
the  historic  summons,  however,  to  a  general  reinvesti- 
gation, and  to  a  new  defense,  of  the  very  foundations 
of  the  faith.  And  right  nobly  was  this  summons  re- 
sponded to.  The  gage  of  battle  was  promptly  taken 
up,  its  issues  fearlessly  met.  The  theories  of  both 
Strauss  and  Baur  were  duly  disarmed  and  displaced, 
though  to  both  of  these  names  conservative  scholarship 
owes  and  acknowledges  a  lasting  debt  of  gratitude. 
While  Strauss's  theories  regarding  Christ  have  been 
wholly  rejected,  yet  his  Life  of  Jesus  was  the  beginning 
of  a  historic  discussion  the  outcome  of  which  has  been 
more  clearly,  convincingly,  and  richly  than  ever  before 
to  establish  and  to  magnify  the  claims  of  the  historic 
Christ  upon  the  thought  of  mankind.  Baur's  theory, 
based   essentially   upon   the   assumption   of  an   irrecon- 


i42      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

cilable  antagonism  between  Paul  and  the  older  apostles, 
while  now  entirely  discredited,  yet  left  him  the  founder 
of  critical  principles  which  have  proven  of  high  value 
in  the  long  discussion  which  has  since  ensued. 

It  can  by  no  means  be  claimed  that  higher  criticism 
has  completed  its  mission  with  the  New  Testament. 
Its  work,  however,  is  so  far  complete  as  to  give  great 
assurance  of  its  permanent  values.  This  criticism  was 
early  removed  from  a  merely  negative  or  destructive 
character.  It  was  espoused  by  men  of  faith  and  of 
the  ablest  constructive  abilities.  The  work  in  its  progress 
has  met  with  some  very  baffling  problems,  such,  for 
instance,  as  those  which  have  been  found  to  inhere 
in  connection  with  the  Fourth  Gospel.  One  general 
fact  has  been  very  clearly  discovered,  namely,  that  the 
old  apologetics  will  not  meet  the  new  conditions.  The 
entire  New  Testament  has  been  set  very  largely  in  a 
new  perspective.  But,  while  traditional  thought  con- 
cerning both  its  teaching  and  history  has  been  perforce 
largely  modified,  it  may  confidently  be  said  that  the 
inspiration  of  the  New  Testament  was  never  so  mani- 
fest, its  ethical  and  spiritual  content  never  so  rich, 
as  when  seen  in  the  light  of  its  new  setting. 

So  far  as  the  literature  itself  of  the  New  Testament 
is  concerned,  every  space  to  the  very  minutest  in  its 
entire  field  has  been  searched  in  the  fiercest  light  of 
criticism.  As  the  outcome  of  all,  so  far  as  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  books  is  involved,  it  may  be  said  that  a 
conservative  view  holds  that  of  the  older  group  of  New 
Testament  literature — the  Pauline  Epistles — of  the  thir- 
teen ascribed  to  Paul's  authorship,  the  following  may 
be  accepted  as  genuine,   namely:  The   Epistles  to  the 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  143 

Thessalonians,  Galatians,  Corinthians,  Romans,  Ephe- 
sians,  Colossians,  Philemon,  and  Philippians.  Historical 
study  of  the  two  Epistles  to  Timothy  and  the  one  to 
Titus  has  discovered  so  many  difficulties  as  to  incline 
some  conservative  critics  to  doubt  their  Pauline  author- 
ship. Professor  Hort,  while  acknowledging  the  objec- 
tions, says  that,  to  the  best  of  his  belief,  they  were 
written  by  Paul.  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  while 
traditionally  assigned  to  Paul,  has  by  common  consent 
for  a  long  period  been  conceded  as  not  of  his  authorship. 
The  authorship  of  the  Epistle  of  James,  which  has  gen- 
erally been  assigned  to  James,  the  brother  of  the  Lord, 
is  now  regarded  as  quite  uncertain.  Its  approximate 
date  is  also  a  question  which  is  not  satisfactorily  estab- 
lished. That  Saint  Peter  was  the  author  of  the  first 
Epistle  bearing  his  name  meets  with  such  support  as 
to  permit  restfulness  in  this  conclusion.  In  literary 
form  Second  Peter  and  Jude  show  much  interdependence. 
It  is  considered  doubtful  that  Second  Peter  could  have 
been  the  source  of  Jude.  If,  however,  Jude  is  the  source 
of  the  former,  then  it  would  seem  decisive  that  Peter 
could  not  have  been  the  author  of  the  Second  Epistle. 
Jude  was  a  brother  of  James,  but  whether  he  is  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  bearing  this  name  is  a  matter 
of  uncertainty,  the  probabilities  being  against  the  claim. 
The  view  in  general  reached  concerning  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  is  that  Mark  is  the  oldest  of  the  three;  that 
both  Matthew  and  Luke  drew  largely  upon  Mark  for 
their  narratives,  but  that  in  all  probability  there  were 
other  existing  documents  upon  which  all  drew  more 
or  less  in  common.  As  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Synoptic 
Gospels   there   is   substantial   unanimity   of   conclusion. 


i44      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Most  recent  research,  especially  as  set  forth  in  Harnack's 
Luke,  seems  to  make  it  indubitable  that  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  was  written  by  the  author  of  the  Third  Gospel. 

Concerning  the  writings  commonly  attributed  to  the 
apostle  John,  both  the  three  Epistles  and  the  Fourth 
Gospel  are  conceded  in  the  order  of  New  Testament 
books  to  be  of  comparatively  late  origin.  The  book  of 
Revelation,  if  from  the  apostle's  pen,  is  probably  the  ear- 
liest of  the  five  productions  bearing  his  name.  There  has 
been  much  discussion  as  to  the  authorship  of  all  these 
books  save  perhaps  the  First  Epistle.  No  fiercer  critical 
controversy  has  been  waged  around  any  part  of  the  New 
Testament  than  around  the  authorship  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel.  The  preponderant  conclusion  of  all  is  that  if 
this  Gospel  was  not  directly  written  by  the  apostle 
John  it  was  in  any  event  composed  by  one  who  familiarly 
knew  and  represented  his  personal  thought  and  teachings. 

Thus,  without  entering  into  the  merits  of  the  discussion 
— a  discussion  which  would  require  a  volume  for  adequate 
treatment — I  have  endeavored  briefly  to  indicate  what 
would  seem  to  me  a  fair  critical  consensus  as  to  the  author- 
ship and  genuineness  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament. 
Some  facts  should  be  clearly  borne  in  mind  : 

i.  If  there  are  real  difficulties — and  there  are  many 
of  them — in  ascertaining  the  authorship,  the  date,  or 
the  real  status  of  any  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, these  difficulties  have  in  no  way  been  created 
by  the  processes  of  criticism.  They  are  difficulties  which 
inhere  in  the  situation,  difficulties  which  criticism  finds 
when  it  approaches  the  New  Testament  as  a  field  for 
investigation,  and  to  the  solution  of  which  criticism 
has  devoted  its  ablest  efforts. 


NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM  145 

2.  Whatever  uncertainty  may  remain  as  to  dates  and 
authorship  of  given  books,  enough  is  known  as  to  the 
character  and  the  period  of  all  the  books  to  assure 
confidence  that  their  authors  stood  very  close  to  the 
sources  of  Christian  history,  and  that  they  have  given 
us  genuine  and  faithful  portrayal  of  the  teachings  of 
both  Christ  and  his  apostles.  However  unknowing  we 
may  be  as  to  the  authorship  or  dates  of  certain  of  its 
books,  the  New  Testament  as  a  whole  gives  us  an  unim- 
peachable record  of  the  vital  beginnings  of  Christian 
history. 

3.  It  should  also  be  said  that  most  of  the  books  about 
which  conservative  criticism  feels  more  or  less  uncer- 
tainty are  the  books  concerning  which,  from  the  begin- 
ning, there  has  been  an  attitude  of  questioning  on  the 
part  of  the  Church. 

4.  Finally,  if  the  books  about  which  there  is  doubt 
are  left  entirely  out  of  consideration,  there  is,  in  the 
books  concerning  whose  authorship  there  is  no  question, 
sufficient  material  on  which  to  plant  securely  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Christian  Church.  Whatever  else  criticism 
has  done  or  has  failed  to  do,  it  has,  by  going  to  the 
bottom  facts,  by  laying  bare  its  very  first  things,  demon- 
strated that  the  historic  foundations  of  Christianity  are 
indestructible.  In  response  to  all  intelligent  inquiry  the 
evidences  for  the  divinity  of  the  Christian  religion  as 
judged  by  its  initial  records  were  never  so  clear,  never 
so  indubitable,  never  so  invincible  as  now: 

"As  some  tall  cliff  that  lifts  its  awful  form, 
Swells  from  the  vale,  and  midway  leaves  the  storm, 
Though  round  its  breast  the  rolling  clouds  are  spread, 
Eternal  sunshine  settles  on  its  head." 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION 


147 


Absolutely  without  originality  there  is  no  man.  No  man  whatever 
believes,  or  can  believe,  exactly  what  his  grandfather  believed:  He 
enlarges  somewhat,  by  fresh  discovery,  his  view  of  the  universe,  and 
consequently  his  Theorem  of  the  Universe, — which  is  an  infinite 
Universe,  and  can  never  be  embraced  wholly  or  finally  by  any  view 
or  Theorem,  in  any  conceivable  enlargement:  he  enlarges  somewhat, 
I  say;  finds  somewhat  that  was  credible  to  his  grandfather  incredible 
to  him,  false  to  him,  inconsistent  with  some  new  thing  he  has  dis- 
covered or  observed.  It  is  the  history  of  every  man;  and  in  the 
history  of  Mankind  we  see  it  summed  up  into  great  historical 
amounts, — revelations,  new  epochs. — Carlyle. 

Certain  it  is  that  Augustine's  final  dogmatic  scheme  has  turned 
Christianity  from  a  religion  of  joy  and  hopefulness  into  the 
most  appalling  pessimism  that  the  human  imagination  has  ever 
conceived.  .  .  . 

But  we  say,  with  all  the  emphasis  that  is  possible  to  us — for  it  is 
a  time  to  speak  plainly — that  the  "Calvinism"  which  Calvin  received 
and  handed  down  is  not  "the  Christian  interpretation  of  a  truth 
many  lesser  minds  have  feared  to  face,"  is  not  the  Christian  inter- 
pretation of  the  facts  of  life,  but  a  gross  misinterpretation;  a  theory 
of  the  divine  character  and  of  human  destiny  which  has  no  foundation 
either  in  the  New  Testament  or  in  our  knowledge  of  ourselves;  a 
nightmare  which  it  is  time  we  woke  from,  an  evil  legacy  of  the  past 
which,  in  the  interests  of  religion  and  of  human  sanity,  needs  to  be 
buried — deep  beyond  all  possibility  of  disinterment. — Brierley. 

Christ  makes  the  Fatherhood  the  basis  of  all  the  duties  which  man 
owes  to  God.  Supreme  love  to  God  is  possible  only  because  God  is 
love.  On  the  ground  of  mere  sovereignty  or  judicial  and  autocratic 
authority,  the  first  commandment  could  never  be  enjoined.  We 
cannot  love  simply  because  we  will  or  wish  or  are  commanded,  but 
only  because  we  are  loved.  Supreme  affection  is  possible  only  through 
the  Sovereign  Fatherhood.  And  what  is  true  of  this  first  is  true  of 
all  our  other  duties.  Worship  is  to  be  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  because 
it  is  worship  of  the  Father.  Prayer  is  to  be  constant  and  simple  and 
sincere,  because  it  is  offered  to  the  Father.  We  are  to  give  alms  in 
simplicity  and  without  ostentation,  because  the  Father  sees  in  secret. 
We  are  to  be  forgiving,  because  the  Father  forgives.  Obedience  is 
imitation  of  God,  a  being  perfect  as  our  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. 
In  a  word,  duty  is  but  the  habit  of  the  filial  spirit;  and  it  is  possible 
and  incumbent  on  all  men,  because  all  are  sons. — A.  M.  Fairbairn. 


148 


CHAPTER  X 
GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION 

Three  factors  are  requisite  to  the  ends  of  revelation: 
the  revealing  source,  the  truth  to  be  imparted,  the 
receiving  and  apprehending  mind.  It  is  obvious  that 
without  the  last  of  these  factors  there  can  be  no  real 
revelation.  Revelation  addresses  itself  to  intelligence. 
The  night  skies  might  be  as  thickly  studded  with  stars 
as  now,  the  clouds  float  as  fleecily,  the  glow  of  the  rising 
and  setting  sun  furnish  all  external  conditions  of  beauty; 
but  if  the  earth  were  without  intelligent  inhabitants 
the  whole  scene  would  be  meaningless.  Revelation  to  be 
effective  must  be  apprehended  by,  and  translated  into 
the  possession  of,  a  human  intelligence.  And  so,  in 
the  last  resort,  the  matter  of  revelation  is  largely  one 
of  interpretation.  This  vital  and  underlying  fact  very 
clearly  indicates  that  revelation  itself  is  conditioned  by 
the  capacity  and  intelligence  of  the  mind  to  which  it 
is  addressed. 

It  is  not  within  my  present  purpose  to  discuss  any 
specific  view  of  revelation  or  of  inspiration.  I  do  not 
believe  that,  under  any  philosophy  which  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  rationally  adequate  to  the  case,  the  Bible  can 
be  accounted  for  except  as  containing  a  record  of  special 
divine  revelations  to  mankind;  and  its  appeal  in  general 
to  the  moral  soul  of  the  race  is  explained  only  in  the 
fact  that  a  spirit  of  divine  inspiration  breathes  through 
its  volume  as  in  no  other  literature  of  the  world.  In 
this  view,  however,  there  is  nothing  inharmonious  with 

149 


ISO      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

that  which  declares  that  vision,  insight  of  a  high  order, 
is  necessary  for  the  human  appreciation  of  any  divine 
manifestation.  In  the  realm  of  the  spiritual  as  in  the 
natural  world  there  is  an  unlimited  wealth  of  truth 
which  can  be  appropriated  only  by  the  deeply  in-seeing 
soul.  As  in  philosophical  and  scientific  realms  it 
is  only  the  exceptional  seers  who  have  explored  and 
brought  to  the  common  knowledge  the  hidden  treasures 
of  thought  and  of  fact,  so  only  to  a  class  of  specially 
gifted — inspired — minds,  prophets,  apostles,  saints,  have 
there  been  revealed  the  higher  truths  and  the  richer 
treasures  of  the  spiritual  world.  In  the  spiritual  as  in 
the  natural  world  it  seems  to  be  God's  order  that  the 
great  democracy  of  the  human  mind  shall  be  dependent 
upon  the  message  of  the  in-seeing,  of  the  inspired,  prophet 
for  the  knowledge  of  the  larger  truths.  It  is  this  in- 
seeing,  this  inspired,  prophet  who  has  led  all  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  advances  of  human  history. 

All  teaching  processes  are  limited  by  the  capacity 
for  reception.  We  do  not  undertake  to  teach  our  chil- 
dren in  terms  of  abstruse  philosophy.  Between  the 
kindergarten  and  the  postgraduate  courses  of  the  uni- 
versity there  is  a  long  and  graded  distance.  A  child 
thinks  as  a  child,  and  all  thought  which  he  shall  intel- 
ligently appreciate  must  be  on  the  plane  of  childlike 
mind.  But  when  he  becomes  intellectually  a  full-grown 
man  he  has  put  away  childish  thoughts  and  is  at  home 
with  mature  themes.  And  this  illustrates  God's  law  of 
dealing  with  the  race.  History  in  its  great  trends 
clearly  demonstrates  the  progressive  character  of  human 
knowledge.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  there  are  some 
exceptions  to  this  law.     We  hear  of  "lost  arts."     It  is 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  151 

certain  that  some  civilizations  have  developed  periods 
of  brilliant  intellectuality  which  have  been  followed  by 
mental  decline.  The  comparatively  modern  period  of 
the  "Dark  Ages,"  involving  all  Europe,  was  like  a  long 
night  that  set  in  after  the  reign  of  brilliant  civilizations, 
civilizations  that  carried  in  themselves  the  most  perfect 
fruits  of  intellect,  of  art,  of  law,  of  government,  of  mo- 
rality. But  these  exceptions  are  only  apparent  as  against 
the  general  law  of  racial  mental  progress.  They  fall 
under  the  analyses  of  a  philosophy  which  quite  fully 
explains  their  place  in  general  history.  All  apparent 
exceptions  duly  considered,  the  fundamental  and  abid- 
ing fact  is  that  what  we  think  of  as  the  world's  progress 
is  measured  by  the  world's  growing  knowledge. 

"Yet  I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns." 

The  history  of  anthropology  uncovers  long  ages 
through  which  man,  however  brutelike  in  strength,  or 
however  fiercely  he  might  fight  his  battles,  was  exceed- 
ingly limited  in  his  intellectual  attainments,  commanding 
only  the  most  rudimentary  knowledge  of  nature's  forces. 
Indeed,  a  great  pathos  of  human  history  is  that  man, 
living  in  a  world  so  rich  in  resources,  should  have  spent 
untold  ages  in  such  mental  undiscernment  as  to  have 
secured  for  himself  only  the  slightest  knowledge  and 
mastery  of  nature's  wealth.  In  the  days  when  the 
first  man  walked  the  earth  nature  was  just  as  rich  in 
all  the  facts  and  the  material  out  of  which  the  modern 
sciences  are  constructed  as  to-day.  Nearly  all  the 
great  sciences  were  born  but  yesterday.  The  splendid 
heritage  of  art  which  now  gives  to  man  a  real  sovereignty 
— a  sovereignty  that  seems  more  wonderful  than  magic 


i52       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

— over  earth  and  sea  and  air  is  but  the  gift  of  to-day. 
Yet  through  all  the  millenniums  man  groped  his  way 
in  this  richly  stored  world  apparently  in  sublime  ignorance 
of  the  fact  that  nature,  like  the  locked  boxes  of  a  great 
safety  vault,  was  only  awaiting  the  key  of  his  inven- 
tion to  enrich  and  crown  him  with  her  illimitable  treasures. 

The  fact  is  that  nature  through  all  the  ages  has  lifted 
itself  on  every  human  pathway  like  a  veritable  temple 
of  revelation,  its  windows  aflame  with  the  light  of  heaven, 
its  every  wall  and  space  crowded  with  the  records  of 
divine  truth.  Through  all  these  ages  the  doors  of  this 
temple  have  been  wide  open  inviting  entrance  and 
exploration.  For  the  interpreter  of  its  records  there 
has  ever  been  waiting  the  secret  of  infinite  knowledge 
and  of  unlimited  power.  The  astounding  fact  is  that 
through  the  long  centuries  man  has  walked  the  earth 
as  stupidly  as  a  tramp;  through  ignorance  he  has  missed 
his  birthright  of  lordship,  he  has  failed  utterly  to  develop 
the  discerning  intelligence  of  translating  and  appro- 
priating nature's  uninventoried  wisdom  and  wealth.  But 
if  it  be  true  that  the  race  has  been  slow  in  developing 
a  knowledge  of  nature's  more  material  side,  if  it  be 
true  that  the  physical  sciences  have  delayed  their  advent 
till  these  later  days,  then  how  much  more  in  the  higher 
realms  of  psychic,  spiritual,  and  moral  revelation  is  man's 
progress  likely  to  be  of  slow  growth!  The  limitations 
of  racial  knowledge,  of  insight,  of  perception,  have  ever 
been  the  barriers  which  not  even  God  has  been  able  to 
transcend  in  imparting  his  revelations  to  mankind. 

It  may  be  all  in  the  divine  plan,  it  would  seem  doubt- 
less so;  but  the  childhood  of  the  race  has  long  tarried, 
and  God  has  had  to  wait  suiting  times  and  develop- 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  153 

ment  for  the  impartation  of  his  larger  revelations.  If 
it  were  possible  for  us  to  catch  from  the  lips  of  the  first 
devout  Hebrew  his  conception  of  the  God  whom  he 
worshiped,  we  should  find  that  conception  poor  and 
meager  as  compared  with  the  divine  thought  which  in 
the  fullness  of  time  was  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  In- 
deed, the  earliest  recorded  thought  of  God  given  us 
in  the  Hebrew  records  seems  at  best  to  give  no  larger 
conception  than  that  of  the  tribal  deity.  The  acts 
attributed  to  Deity  in  some  of  the  Old  Testament  nar- 
ratives are  plainly  such  as  to  indicate  conceptions  which 
are  entirely  unworthy  of  the  God  of  Christian  revela- 
tion. God  is  represented  as  sanctioning  acts  which 
would  be  only  abhorrent  to  him  whom  Christ  taught 
us  to  worship  as  our  "Father  which  is  in  heaven."  A 
just  inference  seems  to  be  that  the  framers  of  these  early 
narratives  had  very  immature,  even  infantile,  conceptions 
not  only  as  to  God's  character,  but  that  in  their  phil- 
osophy they  sometimes  attributed  to  him  acts  which 
were  prompted  simply  by  their  own  interests. 

One  can  hardly  read  the  narratives  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Canaanites  under  Joshua,  and  many  kindred 
happenings  in  the  periods  of  Judges  and  of  Kings,  the 
repeated  stories  of  the  ruthless  slaughter  of  all  adult 
male  populations  in  an  enemy's  territory,  and  the  taking 
of  the  women  and  children  into  captivity,  and  at  the 
same  time  feel  that  all  this  could  have  been  ordered 
and  approved  by  the  God  of  the  New  Testament.  If  it 
should  be  said  that  these  stories  are  in  keeping  with 
the  spirit  of  warfare  among  a  primitive  and  cruel  people, 
then  no  exception  can  be  taken  to  the  statement.  If, 
further,  it  should  be  declared  that  the  victors  in  these 


154      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

barbarous  conflicts  were  fully  persuaded  that  their  vic- 
tories were  due  to  divine  favor,  this  could  as  readily 
be  believed.  The  earliest  pagan  records  abundantly  re- 
late attempts  on  the  part  of  those  going  forth  to  battle 
to  propitiate  and  to  secure  the  favor  of  the  gods.  It 
would  be  most  natural  for  the  earlier  warriors  of  Israel 
to  ascribe  their  victories  to  Jehovah,  and  to  accredit 
him  with  the  ordering  of  their  battles,  and  the  justifi- 
cation of  their  methods.  But  all  this,  so  far  from  proving 
that  God  did  prescribe  and  approve  these  rude  methods 
of  warfare,  may  only  suggest  how  greatly  lacking  were 
these  ancient  warriors  themselves  in  a  knowledge  of 
God's  true  spirit.  The  God  whose  face  is  seen  in  Jesus 
Christ  had  not  much  entered  into  the  hearts  of  these 
men.  They  were  doubtless  firm  believers  in  God,  but 
their  conceptions  of  God  were  more  shaped  by  their 
human  and  unrefined  ideals  than  by  any  full  and  enrich- 
ing revelation  of  the  divine  character.  The  spirit  of 
the  Psalmist  who  pictured  to  himself  a  satisfying  happi- 
ness in  the  destruction  of  the  daughter  of  Babylon, 
and  in  the  dashing  of  her  little  ones  against  the  stones, 
would  seem  infinitely  far  from  inspired  by  Him  who 
commands  that  we  shall  love  our  enemies,  bless  them 
who  curse  us,  and  who  sendeth  his  rain  alike  upon  the 
just  and  the  unjust. 

Dr.  Albert  C.  Knudson,  professor  of  Old  Testament 
exegesis  in  Boston  University,  in  speaking  of  this  general 
phase  of  morality  as  set  forth  in  some  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment records,  says:  "The  deception  practiced  by  the 
patriarchs  is  recorded  without  condemnation.  The  crude 
and  cruel  law  of  retaliation  is  sanctioned  as  of  divine 
origin.     The  treachery  of  Jael  is  highly  lauded.     And  an 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  155 

intense  and  bitter  national  spirit  is  inculcated,  one  that 
brooks  no  sympathetic  intercourse  with  foreign  peoples, 
and  permits  no  eye  of  pity  to  fall  even  on  their  wives 
and  children  if  they  stand  in  the  way  of  Israel's  mission. 
This  narrow  spirit  we  find  in  widely  separated  portions 
of  the  Old  Testament.  It  appears  in  the  later  prophetic 
utterances;  it  is  embodied  in  the  legislation;  and  it 
receives  startlingly  strong  expression  in  the  imprecatory 
Psalms." 

It  is  indeed  advocated  by  strong  writers — for  instance, 
by  Professor  A.  M.  Fairbairn  in  his  great  book,  The 
Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology — that  Christ  alone 
was  the  real  creator  of  monotheism  as  a  realized  religious 
faith.  He  insists  that  the  monotheism  of  the  Hebrews 
never  at  best  reached  beyond  henotheism,  a  practical 
belief  that  Jehovah  was  the  supreme  God  whose  sovereign 
services  were  rather  for  Israel  than  for  all  mankind. 
It  was  reserved  for  Christ  to  practicalize  in  faith  the 
conception  that  God  is  not  only  the  Creator,  but  also 
the  universal  Father,  of  men.  In  Christ  we  have  the 
express  image  of  the  Father's  glory,  full  of  grace  and 
truth.  He  is  the  supreme  revelation.  The  culmination 
of  all  of  God's  dealings  with  his  world  centers  in  him. 
Human  thought  will  never  transcend  Christ.  No  human 
mind  has  been  large  enough  to  exhaust  the  riches  of 
revelation  in  him.  He  is  more  and  more  attracting  to 
himself  the  wonder  and  the  worship  of  mankind.  This 
process  will  go  on  indefinitely  and  increasingly.  It  will 
be  hereafter  and  forever  impossible  to  obscure  the  place 
of  Christ  in  the  world's  thought. 

Unfortunately,  and  for  long  ages,  Christ's  real  historic 
place  has  been  kept  largely  in  the  background  even  of 


156       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Christian  thought;  and  the  real  agency  in  this  obscure- 
ness  has  been  the  Church  bearing  his  name.  Christ 
was  the  creator  of  Christianity,  and  in  the  first  ages, 
when  its  teachings  and  spirit  fell  upon  the  world  pure 
from  their  source,  this  Christianity  proved  itself  an 
irresistible  moral  force  in  the  world.  It  conquered  the 
Roman  empire,  inspired  human  society  with  new  spir- 
itual ideals,  and  founded  a  Church  whose  life  has  per- 
sisted and  flourished  when  all  contemporary  civilizations 
have  perished.  If  the  ideal  Christianity  as  shaped  by 
Christ  himself,  and  as  preached  and  lived  by  early 
inspired  apostles  and  evangelists,  could  have  continued 
in  incorruptible  course,  it  is  impossible  now  to  say  in 
what  measure,  and  how  early,  it  might  have  transformed 
the  world. 

But  the  very  popular  successes  of  Christianity  were 
to  prove  the  sources  of  its  greatest  impairment.  It 
attracted  to  itself  countless  and  unregenerate  hordes 
representing  all  faiths  and  all  philosophies.  The  Roman 
empire  had  domesticated  in  its  Pantheon  all  the  gods 
of  the  pagan  world.  In  the  breadth  of  her  policies 
Rome  had  not  assumed  to  interfere  with  the  religions 
of  her  conquered  provinces.  Under  her  imperial  banners 
the  paganisms  of  the  world  were  protected  in  their 
various  cults  and  worship.  But  all  this  meant  that 
Rome  under  the  wings  of  her  wide  authority  had  brooded 
a  vast  medley  of  religious  faiths,  philosophies,  and 
skepticisms.  It  followed,  and  inevitably,  that  when 
the  tides  of  this  mixed  pagan  world  set  toward  Chris- 
tianity very  much  of  its  conversion  to  the  new  faith 
was  nominal  rather  than  real,  superficial  rather  than 
vital.     Multitudes  of  the  converts  brought  to  their  new 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  157 

religious  citizenship  the  household  gods  of  their  old 
paganisms.  It  was  impossible  that  Christianity  with 
this  vast  influx  of  unassimilated  life  in  her  nominal 
ranks  should  be  able  to  maintain  the  distinctive  purity, 
vigor,  and  spiritual  aggressiveness  which  so  fully  char- 
acterized its  original  movements.  An  unregenerate  pagan- 
ism, like  a  vicious  alloy,  had  entered  its  life  with  the 
effect  of  deteriorating  both  the  quality  and  the  beauty 
of  its  moral  force.  A  river  which  flows  through  wide 
territory,  no  matter  how  high  or  pure  its  source,  will 
take  in  solution  the  soils  through  which  it  passes,  and 
these  soils  in  turn  will  give  tone  and  color  to  its  waters. 
It  was  this  process  which  modified  Christianity  when  it 
took  possession  of  the  Roman  empire. 

But  there  was  another  great  force,  or  combination 
of  forces,  that  wrought  simultaneously  with  the  paganism 
of  Rome,  and  that  was  Greek  philosophy.  If  the  mind 
of  the  Roman  was  legal,  that  of  the  Greek  was  phil- 
osophical. When  Greek  philosophy  might  otherwise  have 
passed  quietly  to  its  final  rest,  Christianity  furnished 
the  subject  upon  which  its  revived  energies  fastened 
and  fed  themselves.  It  naturally  resulted  that  the 
most  fruitful  theologians  of  the  patristic  Church  were 
men  who  had  been  trained  in  the  Grecian  schools.  The 
juridical  type  of  the  Roman  and  the  philosophical  type 
of  the  Grecian  mind,  while  holding  much  in  common, 
were  genetically  so  unlike  as  to  make  impracticable  as 
between  them  a  harmonious  merger  of  fundamental  be- 
liefs. If  Christianity  was  to  become  the  chief  objective 
to  which  these  two  types  should  direct  their  energies, 
it  was  inevitable  that  ultimately  two  Churches  should 
result — the   Grecian   and   the   Roman.     But   these   two 


ts8      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Churches,  the  one  through  its  philosophy,  the  other 
by  its  genius  for  government,  constituted  themselves 
the  custodians  and  interpreters  of  Christian  thought  as 
against  the  world.  When  the  Roman  empire  disin- 
tegrated it  left  a  heritage  of  peerless  ideals  of  law  and 
of  government.  Christianity  then  loomed  up  as  the  one 
great  possibility,  as  the  one  community  of  vital  coherence 
and  of  common  interests  large  enough  in  promise  to 
transfer  and  to  appropriate  to  itself  the  splendid  imperi- 
alism which  the  empire  dying  had  left  tenantless.  The 
transfer  of  Roman  imperialism  to  the  Church  was  gradual. 
But  the  Roman  ecclesiastic  had  imperialism  in  his  blood; 
he  had  too  vitally  imbibed  the  proud  traditions  of  his 
national  history  not  to  prove  an  apt  statesman  in  adapt- 
ing the  principles  of  Roman  government  to  the  Christian 
community. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  with  its  finally  developed 
hierarchy,  its  papal  absolutism,  its  claim  to  infallibility, 
its  authoritative  monopoly  of  the  Christian  Scriptures 
and  its  assumption  of  being  by  divine  right  their  sole 
interpreter,  its  ruthless  enslavement  of  the  Christian 
conscience — all  this  was  a  logical  evolution.  But  what 
was  potentially  true  of  Christianity  in  its  relations  to 
Roman  law  was  equally  true  in  its  relations  to  Grecian 
philosophy.  It  was  the  one  interest  which  brought  to 
this  philosophy  a  new  awakening,  which  furnished  a 
new  basis  and  a  new  reason  for  its  continued  activities. 

The  dominant  theologians  among  the  Fathers  were 
men  of  Greek  inheritance  and  training.  Among  them 
were  such  great  names  as  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen, 
Jerome,  Athanasius,  Augustine.  Jerome  and  Augustine 
belonged  to  the  Western  Church.     As  ecclesiastics  they 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  159 

were  fully  imbued  with  the  Roman  spirit.  Augustine's 
tremendous  dogmas  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  were  thor- 
oughly the  offspring  of  Roman  imperialism.  But  as 
biblical  interpreters  both  Jerome  and  Augustine  were 
greatly  influenced  by  the  Alexandrine  school  of  thought. 
In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Greek  mind  furnished 
to  the  Church,  East  and  West,  the  type  of  theology 
and  of  scriptural  interpretation  which  dominated  Chris- 
tian thought  down  to,  and  even  after,  the  period  of  the 
Reformation. 

Thus  the  Christian  Church  through  many  centuries 
of  its  history  was  practically  directed  by  two  great 
forces,  Grecian  theology  and  papal  ecclesiasticism — the 
one  dominant  as  an  intellectual  inheritance,  the  other 
controlling  because  armed  with  imperial  authority.  The 
power  which  these  two  forces,  singly  or  combined,  came 
to  exercise  over  the  human  mind  is  simply  incalculable. 
It  is  doubtless  within  the  bounds  of  truth  to  declare 
that  in  the  ages  faced  by  Wycliffe  and  Luther  the  philos- 
ophy of  scriptural  interpretation  as  inherited  from  the 
Fathers  wielded  a  more  direct  and  far  greater  influence 
upon  the  thought  of  the  Christian  world  than  did  the 
combined  teachings  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Christ 
and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  indeed,  were 
largely  lost  in  the  maze  of  patristic  allegory.  As  an 
ecclesiastical  system  the  papal  hierarchy  stands  as  one 
of  the  most  consummate  creations  of  human  genius. 
As  such  the  historian  may  well  devote  to  it  his  closest 
studies,  and  for  its  many  excellencies  he  may  justly 
bestow  upon  it  highest  eulogy. 

But,  alas!  the  most  favorable  picture  we  may  have 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  is  not  that  which  comes  to  us 


i6o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

as  we  rise  fresh  from  the  reading  of  the  New  Testament. 
In  the  New  Testament  we  find,  no  remotest  hint  of  an 
imperial  pope,  none  of  a  triple-crowned  and  purple-robed 
priesthood,  no  suggestion  of  sacerdotal  agents  with  author- 
ity to  open  or  shut  the  gates  of  heaven  as  against  the 
souls  of  men.  In  the  New  Testament  the  Church  is 
conceived  of  as  the  body  of  believers,  as  the  company 
of  individuals  who  have  joined  themselves  to  Christ  and 
who  have  received  his  spirit.  Ministers  are  given  to 
the  Church,  but  the  idea  of  ministry  is  that  of  service. 
The  New  Testament  minister  is  most  approved  who  is 
most  like  his  Master,  giving  himself  in  spiritual  service 
to  the  needy,  the  poor,  and  the  sick,  preaching  a  gospel 
of  good  tidings,  of  forgiveness  and  salvation  to  sinful 
men.  The  service  of  the  ministry  is  ethical  and  spiritual, 
and  there  is  nowhere  any  suggestion  of  a  function  that 
is  ceremonial  or  sacerdotal  in  its  character.  It  is  the 
privilege  of  all  to  present  themselves  direct  to  the  heav- 
enly Father  through  his  Son.  The  only  priesthood  aside 
from  Christ  is  the  common  priesthood  of  believers. 

It  should  by  no  means  be  inferred  that  the  Church 
through  the  period  above  described  was  destitute  of 
the  spirit  of  a  true  Christianity.  In  spite  of  all  obscure- 
ments  of  New  Testament  doctrines  through  faulty 
teaching,  and  notwithstanding  fearful  corruptions  in  the 
rule  and  life  of  the  Church,  the  pure  spirit  of  Christ 
was  so  vital  that  the  most  perverted  ages  were  not  per- 
mitted to  pass  without  the  development  of  exceptional 
saints  whose  lives  are  a  perpetual  adornment  of  Christian 
history. 

And  now  I  return  from  this  lengthy  but  needed  state- 
ment in  relation  to  the  influences  of  Greek  philosophy 


GROWTH  OP  INTERPRETATION  161 

and  the  Papal  Church  to  say  that,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  values  to  Christian  thought  of  the  Grecian 
Fathers,  or  whatever  may  be  said  in  defense  of  the 
Roman  Church,  it  remains  true  that  by  the  mystifying 
and  sequestering  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  they  ob- 
scured from  popular  knowledge  the  historic  sources  of 
Christianity  and  they  suceeded  largely  in  putting  Christ 
himself  into  the  background  of  Christian  thought. 

Such  a  history  prepares  us  to  appreciate  in  some 
measure  the  beneficent  mission  of  the  modern  critical 
movement.  This  movement  has  recovered  the  Bible  to 
the  people.  Of  course,  due  recognition  should  be  given 
to  previous  efforts  in  this  direction.  Wycliffe,  Luther, 
and  other  reformers  translated  the  Scriptures  into  the 
popular  tongues.  A  great  emphasis  of  the  Reformation 
was  to  call  the  faith  of  the  people  back  to  the  Bible  as 
the  supreme  authority  in  matters  of  salvation.  But, 
after  the  Reformation  had  done  its  work  in  this  respect, 
the  Scriptures  were  far  from  being  emancipated  from 
false  methods.  It  has  been  the  high  function  of  the 
critical  movement  to  expose  and  to  destroy  vicious 
traditional  methods  of  interpretation.  It  has  not  only 
done  this,  but  at  the  cost  of  incessant,  enormous,  and 
reverent  toil  it  has  searched  the  foundations  of  the 
biblical  books,  has  reproduced  the  historic  atmospheres 
in  which  they  were  written,  and  has  given  us  both  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testaments  in  far  more  perfect  and 
intelligent  forms  than  have  ever  been  possible  in  any 
previous  age  of  human  learning.  So  far  as  the  New 
Testament  is  concerned — and  this  is  now  specially  in 
our  thought — the  historic  settings  of  the  books,  its  pure 
and  unglossed  utterances,   its  own  original  and  direct 


1 62      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

message  to  mankind,  in  a  measure  far  more  perfect 
than  was  ever  before  true,  are  now  our  first-hand  pos- 
session. And  the  most  beneficent  outcome  of  it  all  is 
the  re-revelation  of  Christ  and  of  his  teachings. 

To  these  features  I  shall  hereafter  call  more  specific 
attention;  but  certainly  no  phenomenon  in  literary 
history  in  its  significance  bears  any  comparison  to  the 
inexhaustible  and  critical  study  which  has  been  given 
to  the  historic  Christ  in  the  last  seventy-five  years. 
Upon  no  other  character  in  the  world  has  there  so  fiercely 
beaten  the  white  light  of  critical  investigation.  And  it 
is  but  a  mild  statement  of  fact  to  declare  that  to-day 
he  has  emerged  from  the  ordeal  to  receive  acclaim  as 
a  being  more  wonderful,  more  divine,  more  reverenced, 
more  worshiped  than  ever  before.  Not  only  this,  but 
never  so  much  as  now  has  he  drawn  to  himself  the  world's 
best  thinking.  Already  enthroned  without  competitor  in 
the  sanest  worship  of  mankind,  his  dominion  promises 
to  widen  until  the  wisest  and  the  noblest  of  all  the  earth 
shall  lay  their  tribute  at  his  feet. 

The  fact  here  to  be  emphasized  is  that  out  of  all  this 
fresh  study  of  Christ  there  has  come  a  wonderful  enlarge- 
ment in  human  conception  of  the  scope  of  his  person 
and  mission.  In  the  light  of  this  study  Christ  has  not 
only  seemed  to  be  the  supreme  revelation,  but  it  is 
increasingly  felt  that  men  have  hardly  more  than  begun 
to  take  account  of  the  wealth  and  significance  of  this 
revelation.  It  is  certain  that  the  critical  study  of 
original  sources  has  necessitated  great  changes  in  the 
perspective  through  which  we  must  view  important 
Christian  truth.  For  one  thing,  this  study  carries  us 
far  away  from  either  the  Grecian  philosophical  or  the 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  163 

Roman  governmental  interpretation  of  God.  A  truth  of 
recent  discovery  to  the  Church,  but  one  which  lay  most 
vitally  at  the  very  basis  of  all  Christ's  mission  and 
teaching,  is 

THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD 

In  the  theology  of  Augustine,  which  dominated  the 
Church  for  a  millennium  and  a  half,  and  which  was 
powerfully  reinforced  in  the  sixteenth  century  by  Calvin, 
this  greatest  of  all  truths  received  in  its  real  New  Testa- 
ment sense  almost  no  recognition.  The  conceptions 
which  both  Augustine  and  Calvin  transferred  to  Deity 
were  those  derived  from  absolutism  in  government.  The 
God  of  the  Augustinian  theology  was  a  despot  who  ruled 
all  things  by  his  sovereign  decree.  He  even  decreed 
the  existence  of  sin,  and  glorified  himself  as  the  eternal 
prison-keeper  of  its  helpless  victims.  In  the  philosophy 
of  Calvin's  horribile  decretum  no  complaint  can  stand 
against  God  on  the  ground  that  he  elects  some  and 
reprobates  others,  because,  while  those  whom  he  elects 
merit  no  favor,  those  whom  he  reprobates  deserve  pun- 
ishment. In  short,  Calvinism  interpreted  God  through 
sovereignty,  and  the  sovereignty  as  conceived  was  of 
a  type  which  happily  has  been  entirely  displaced  by  the 
mellowing  inspirations  of  a  better  age. 

Between  the  conception  of  the  Fatherhood  as  taught 
by  Jesus  and  that  of  the  sovereign  God  as  set  forth  in 
the  Augustinian  theology  there  is  an  impassable  gulf. 
The  divine  Fatherhood  is  not  only  fundamental  in 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  its  acceptance  de- 
mands a  theology  far  different  from  what  was  possible 
under  the  Augustinian  conception.  In  the  light  of 
Christ's    teachings    every    movement    of    God    toward 


i64      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

humanity  is  from  the  standpoint  of  a  father,  is  prompted 
by  motives  of  love.  God  creates  man  that  he  might 
have  an  eternal  heritage  of  children  in  his  own  likeness, 
children  whom  he  could  love,  with  whom  he  could  com- 
mune, upon  whom  he  could  bestow  his  own  nurture, 
and  whom  he  could  everlastingly  enrich  with  the  inher- 
itances of  sainthood.  The  Divine  Father  was  not 
responsible  for  sin.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  he  could 
not  beget  children  in  his  own  likeness  without  sin  as 
a  liability,  at  least  a  possibility.  That  a  free  being 
endowed  with  the  power  of  rational  choice  could  be 
such  and  at  the  same  time  exempt  from  the  possibility 
of  choosing  evil  is  inconceivable.  God  in  begetting 
human  children  took  this  risk.  We  are  probably  not 
well  prepared  to  measure  the  catastrophe  of  sin  as  held 
in  the  thought  of  the  Divine  Father.  For  all  that  we 
know  sin  may  have  furnished  the  supreme  opportunity 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  Father's  love.  Its  full 
mission  may  be  so  overruled  as  forever  to  immeasurably 
enhance  upon  the  thought  of  the  saints  the  values  of 
God's  Fatherhood. 

Of  one  thing  we  may  rest  assured,  and  that  is,  the 
catastrophe  having  fallen,  the  Father  could  never  abandon 
his  erring  child  to  the  doom  of  sin.  The  eternal  Father- 
hood can  do  nothing  less  than  to  redeem,  nothing  less 
than  to  institute  every  condition  and  agency  for  the 
restitution  of  the  sinning  child.  Sin  may  possibly  per- 
vert and  alienate  the  filial  nature,  and  put  the  child  in  an 
attitude  of  perpetual  estrangement  to  the  Father's  love; 
but  the  Father-heart  will  never  cease  to  yearn  for  the  re- 
turn of  the  wanderer.  The  prodigal  may  never  put  his  face 
homeward,  but  the  Divine  Father  can  never  forget  him. 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  165 

This  does  not  mean  that  there  are  not  included  in 
God's  Fatherhood  all  the  elements  of  a  righteous  sov- 
ereignty; but  it  is  the  sovereignty  essential  to  Father- 
hood and  is  something  infinitely  different  from  the 
mere  incarnation  of  despotic  will.  Righteousness  of 
motive  and  of  conduct  is  an  essential  of  the  divine  house- 
hold. The  family  which  God  seeks  to  create  around 
him  is  one  of  harmony  because  of  the  holiness  and 
obedience  of  its  members.  The  invasion  of  unremedied 
sin  would  turn  the  home  of  God's  chosen  children  into 
a  scene  of  anarchy.  Law,  the  law  of  obedience,  the 
law  of  holiness,  and  this  law  forever  insisted  upon,  is 
one  of  the  most  perfect  expressions  of  the  Father's 
beneficence.  This  is  a  condition  which  forever  underlies 
the  safety  and  the  happiness  of  the  moral  universe. 
This  condition  the  Father's  love  ever  addresses  for  their 
approval  and  acceptance  to  his  sons  and  daughters. 
But  this  all  means  that  God's  sovereignty  is  always 
exercised  in  the  interests  of  his  children,  of  their  char- 
acter and  welfare,  and  never  as  despotic  will. 

It  is  this  relation  of  Fatherhood  which  gives  to  sin 
its  most  hateful  and  forbidding  aspect.  Sin  is  not  simply 
a  defiance  of  law,  it  is  a  crime  against  love.  It  is  the 
alienation  of  a  child  against  the  parental  heart,  the 
rebellion  of  a  life  against  the  most  perfect  good  that 
infinite  love  can  plan  for  that  life.  Sin  is  the  great 
perversion;  it  is  in  its  very  nature  unreasonable,  ungrate- 
ful, hateful.  It  is  the  reign  of  alienation  in  a  heart 
made  for  love;  it  is  the  thwarting  of  the  holiest  ideals 
of  Fatherhood. 

I  have  said  that  it  is  the  very  nature  of  Fatherhood 
to  redeem.     God   could   never  suffer  his   child   to   fall 


1 66      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

under  any  doom  of  sin  without  first  investing  all  divine 
resources  to  rescue  one  so  imperiled.  But,  from  a  dif- 
ferent point  of  view,  atonement  itself  springs  from  the 
very  heart  of  Fatherhood.  The  cross  of  Christ  is  the 
most  vivid  picture  and  portrayal  to  us  of  God's  thought 
of  sin,  of  the  Father's  pity  for  the  child  whom  sin  vic- 
timizes and  imperils.  It  shows  at  once  both  God's 
hatred  of  sin  and  the  sacrifice  which  his  love  is  willing 
to  make  to  save  the  sinner.  "God  so  loved  the  world, 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son."  "Christ  suffered 
death  upon  the  cross  for  our  sins."  With  the  thought 
of  Fatherhood  ever  before  us,  of  one  thing  we  may  be 
sure:  there  was  no  suffering  on  the  part  of  Christ  which 
did  not  equally  pierce  the  heart  of  the  Father.  In 
some  dreadful  way  sin  necessitated  the  cross.  The 
cross  was  a  tragedy  in  the  divine  heart,  an  event  whose 
meaning  in  our  most  tender  and  luminous  moods  we 
shall  never  begin  to  fathom.  Sin  nowhere  can  appear 
so  malignant,  so  deadly  depraved,  such  a  treason  against 
all  goodness,  as  when  seen  in  the  light  of  the  cross. 
To  save  his  child  from  this  malign  and  damning  thing 
the  Father's  love  stops  not  short  of  supreme  sacrifice. 
The  heart  that  can  thrill  with  the  vision  of  the  cross 
must  at  the  same  time  shudder  at  the  enormity  of  the 
thing  which  made  the  cross  a  necessity.  It  is  also  true 
that  nowhere  else  is  there  furnished  such  a  vision  of 
the  Father's  love.  As  we  think  of  Christ  in  the  hours 
when  he  passed  from  Gethsemane  to  Calvary,  the  spectac- 
ular scene  helps  us  to  some  vivid  and  sympathetic 
appreciation  of  his  human  suffering.  Even  so,  our  most 
perfect  view  is  superficial.  The  deeper  meaning  of  the 
tragedy   not   even   the   angels   can   look  into.     But   in 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  167 

the  heart  of  God,  the  Father,  far  removed  from  all 
visible  or  phenomenal  expression,  this  tragedy  to  its 
deepest  pang  was  enacted.  And  what  was  the  purpose 
of  it  all  ?  That  in  some  way  the  infinite  love  of  a  Divine 
Father  might  save  his  child  from  the  death  of  sin.  If 
there  is  any  vision  of  God's  love  that  can  melt  the  sinner's 
heart  into  penitent  contrition,  that  certainly  is  the 
vision  in  the  center  of  which  is  the  cross. 

Fatherhood  is  the  secret  of  the  Incarnation.  God 
must  reveal  himself  to  his  sons  and  daughters.  For 
this  purpose  he  can  meet  our  limitations  in  no  way  so 
effectively  as  by  coming  to  us  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
the  Christ.  In  Christ,  God  the  Father  concretes  himself 
upon  our  human  vision.  If  we  have  seen  Christ  we 
have  seen  the  Father.  If  we  know  the  heart  of  Christ 
we  know  the  heart  of  God.  But  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  Father  has  incarnated  in  the  life  of  his  Son  the 
perfect  ideal  of  what  he  would  have  his  human  children 
to  become.  Christ  in  his  human  life  is  the  beloved 
Son  in  whom  the  Father  is  ever  well  pleased.  And  so, 
with  Christ  before  our  vision,  we  can  never  go  far  astray 
in  our  knowledge  as  to  what  we  ought  to  be  that  we 
may  be  approved  as  the  sons  of  God.  And  this  is  the 
real  significance  of  the  increasing  exaltation  which  Christ 
is  receiving  in  human  history.  God  in  this  way  is  lifting 
his  incarnate  Son  more  and  more  into  the  gaze  of  hu- 
manity. It  is  not  the  son  of  a  Nazarene  carpenter, 
not  the  humble  child  of  obscure  Judean  peasants,  who 
is  being  thus  exalted.  It  is  for  no  less  a  person  than 
his  own  Son  that  God  is  to-day  so  subsidizing  the  forces 
of  history,  of  literature,  and  of  worship.  It  is  the  living 
miracle  of  history  that  Jesus  Christ  is  to-day  more  and 


1 68       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

more  drawing  to  himself  the  attention  of  mankind. 
The  growing  exaltation  of  Christ  in  the  thought  of  all 
nations,  and  especially  at  the  end  of  nineteen  centuries, 
from  the  humble  conditions  of  his  birth,  cannot  be 
accounted  for  on  any  hypothesis  less  than  that  of  his 
divine  Sonship.  His  fame  is  peerless  and  unapproached 
by  any  other  child  of  the  race.  God  hath  exalted  and 
hath  given  him  a  name  that  is  above  every  name,  be- 
cause he  as  no  other  is  the  revelation  of  the  divine  Father- 
hood, as  also  of  that  sonship  to  which  God  through  him 
would  win  all  the  children  of  men. 

But  when  searched  from  every  standpoint  we  shall 
only  the  more  fully  discover  that  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  is  the  all-significant  fact  in  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  the  one  ground  on  which  rests  the  greatest 
of  the  commandments.  We  are  commanded  to  love 
God  with  all  our  being.  But  we  cannot  love  a  Deity 
who  is  simply  a  creator,  a  governor,  or  a  judge.  Love 
only  can  beget  love.  It  is  possible  for  us  to  love  God 
with  all  our  hearts  only  because  as  a  Father  he  has 
loved  us  with  an  unmeasured  love.  And  so,  in  the 
entire  range  of  his  revelation  every  expression,  every 
overture,  of  God  to  men  proceeds  from  the  fountain  of 
his  Fatherhood.  And  every  demand  which  God  makes 
upon  human  life  is  for  the  fulfillment  of  duty  owed  to 
him.  All  the  duties  of  love,  of  faith,  of  honesty,  of 
purity,  of  forgiveness,  of  prayer,  of  worship,  of  service, 
we  owe  because  God  is  our  Father.  The  life  of  a  child 
of  God  is  perfect  only  as  it  is  perfect  in  the  possession 
and  manifestation  of  the  filial  spirit. 

The  Fatherhood  of  God  carries  in  itself  all  the  rela- 
tions and  destinies  of  his  kingdom  in  the  earth.     The 


GROWTH  OF  INTERPRETATION  169 

Fatherhood  of  God  means  the  brotherhood  of  man  with 
all  of  its  far-reaching  implications  and  burdens  of  respon- 
sibility. The  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  will  be  realized 
only  in  just  the  measure  in  which  the  divine  brother- 
hood is  actualized.  The  plain  putting  of  this  truth  may 
seem  to  many  startling  and  chimerical.  But  we  may 
remember  that  we  are  only  at  the  first  end  of  God's 
plans  for  his  world.  The  human  brotherhood  will  be 
perfectly,  beautifully  realized,  and  it  will  be  realized 
through  the  instrumentality  of  men,  increasingly  multi- 
plying men,  who  in  themselves  shall  develop  for  humanity 
the  spirit  and  the  service  which  was  in  Jesus  Christ. 
God's  plans  for  this  world  are  larger  than  we  know. 
A  light  too  effulgent  for  our  present  vision  will  yet 
rest  upon  the  earth.  God  is  not  discouraged;  we  must 
not  be.     He  will  not  fail. 

It  need  not  be  disguised  that  the  modern  emphasis 
of  God's  Fatherhood  has  greatly  modified  methods  and 
conceptions  of  pulpit  ministrations.  This  was  inevitable. 
Treatments  of  themes  which  were  formerly  greatly 
effective  are  no  longer  tolerated.  The  preacher  who  is 
steeped  in  traditional  methods,  and  who  has  failed  to 
keep  himself  intellectually  in  sympathy  with  modern 
scholarship,  is  having  a  hard  time.  He  is  very  likely 
to  be  sincere,  pious,  and  possibly  ardent;  and  these 
qualities  count  for  much.  But  such  a  man  is  hopelessly 
out  of  touch  with  the  deeper  thinking  and  feeling  of 
the  age.  As  a  teacher  he  cannot  command  a  following 
from  the  young  and  alert  intellect  of  the  times.  He 
is  himself  oppressed  with  the  mystery  of  the  situation. 
He  is  tempted  to  be  a  pessimist.  He  feels  that  spirit- 
ually the  times  are  out  of  joint,  when  the  real  trouble 


i7o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

is  that  he  has  anchored  himself  in  both  thought  and 
mood  to  phases  which  the  world  has  outgrown.  Not 
a  few  of  the  old  type  of  traveling  evangelists  whose 
appeals  in  former  days  swayed  multitudes  have,  because 
of  a  change  in  the  intellectual  atmosphere  which  they 
have  not  appreciated,  found  themselves  bereft  of  both 
their  power  and  their  calling.  They  do  not  know  what 
has  happened.  Still  traveling  about  with  their  stock  of 
stereotyped  sermons  in  their  carpetbags,  they  are  vapid 
enough  to  accredit  "higher  criticism"  with  having  carried 
the  Church  and  the  age  out  of  range  of  the  "pure  gospel." 
These  are  the  men  who,  on  a  par  with  Mrs.  Partington 
attempting  to  keep  back  the  Atlantic  Ocean  with  her 
broom,  would  like  to  arrest  the  progress  of  free  investi- 
gation in  our  higher  institutions  of  learning. 

It  may  be  that  the  modern  pulpit  often  fails  in  right 
emphasis,  but,  if  so,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  richer 
gospel  of  the  present  which  the  pulpit  is  commissioned 
to  preach.  No  pulpit  since  Pentecost  has  had  at  com- 
mand such  a  wealth  of  inspired  truth,  so  rich  a  gospel 
of  good  tidings  to  a  needy  world,  as  that  which  in  these 
very  days  is  awaiting  utterance  from  the  intellectually 
equipped  and  the  spiritually  baptized  preacher. 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY 


171 


The  Kingdom  is  a  growth,  both  in  our  understanding  of  it  and  in 
its  realization.  Our  Lord  spoke  of  it  as  a  leaven,  which  was  gradually 
to  leaven  the  lump.  Again,  he  described  it  as  a  seed,  which  should 
grow  up,  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  and  after  that  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear.  And  he  even  spoke  of  our  knowledge  of  it  as  something  to 
be  slowly  gained  under  the  tuition  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom  he  would 
send  to  guide  his  disciples  into  the  truth.  He  brought  the  leaven, 
he  planted  the  seed,  he  spoke  the  word;  but  the  evolution  and  the 
understanding  were  committed  to  the  ages. — Professor  Borden  P. 
Bowne. 

If  there  be  a  real  climax  to  the  long  history  of  nature,  then  it 
surely  must  needs  be  that  no  part  of  the  long  chain  of  process  that 
leads  to  this  consummation  can  be  without  meaning.  Logical  co- 
herence compels  us  to  suppose  that  the  whole  natural  order  is  an 
immense  system  of  final  causes  converging  at  last  upon  one  Supreme 
End,  the  "one  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 
It  is  toward  this  end  that  law  must  be  working,  the  ocean  currents 
flowing,  the  mists  rising  and  falling,  the  strata  being  piled  mountain- 
high,  and  human  life  being  lavished  by  land  and  sea.  All  roads  of 
Nature  at  last  converge  upon  some  Mother  City  of  Man. — D.  S. 
Cairns. 


172 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY 

In  the  matchless  prayer  which  our  Lord  taught  his 
disciples  the  first  utterance  is  an  ascription  to  the  Father, 
a  petition  that  his  name  may  be  hallowed  among  men. 
The  next  is  the  petition  that  God's  kingdom  may  come, 
and  that  his  will  may  be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven. 
The  term  "kingdom"  is  one  which  Christ  habitually  used 
to  designate  the  distinctive  community  or  society  for 
the  creation  of  which  he  himself  came  into  the  world. 
The  phrases  "kingdom  of  God,"  "kingdom  of  heaven," 
or  "my  kingdom,"  as  used  almost  solely  by  Christ, 
appear  in  the  Gospels  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
twelve  times,  while  the  term  "Church"  is  recorded  to 
have  fallen  from  his  lips  in  but  two  instances.  It  is 
evident  that  in  Christ's  thought  the  kingdom  and  the 
Church  were  not  synonymous  terms.  The  Church,  how- 
ever important  its  mission,  is  but  one  of  the  agencies 
of  the  kingdom. 

Christ's  conception  of  the  kingdom  is  no  less  than  that 
of  a  new  moral  order  for  the  world,  a  universal  empire 
of  humanity  in  which  shall  be  actualized  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  phrase  "king- 
dom of  heaven"  has  been  much  treated  in  sermons  and 
in  Christian  literature  as  though  it  related  solely  to  a 
supramundane  life,  the  life  of  a  heavenly  hereafter. 
It  is  doubtless  sometimes  used  to  express  the  translated 
and  the  celestial  estate  into  which  Christ's  perfected 
kingdom    shall    ultimately    eventuate.     But    the    great 

173 


174      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

burden  and  stress  of  the  term  as  it  fell  from  Christ's 
lips  had  reference  solely  to  God's  purposes  and  work 
as  relating  to  this  human  world. 

In  accepting  this  view  we  must  hold  ourselves  ever 
mindful  of  the  fact  that,  whatever  this  conception  in- 
volves as  to  the  meaning  of  the  kingdom,  it  is  a  conception 
that  adjusts  itself  to  human  and  mundane  conditions. 
The  kingdom  thus  conceived  is  not  identical  either  in 
development  or  environment  with  that  of  the  final  and 
heavenly  estate.  The  kingdom  on  earth  when  most 
perfectly  developed  will  still  be  composed  of  citizens  of 
human  limitations.  Knowledge  will  be  imperfect,  char- 
acter in  many  cases  will  be  immature,  and  it  is  quite 
conceivable  that  dispositions  alien  to  the  kingdom  may 
persist  in  exceptional  instances.  But  the  kingdom  on 
earth  as  conceived  by  Christ  certainly  does  involve  the 
most  ideal  conditions  possible  in  a  mortal  world. 

It  would  seem  that  for  obvious  reasons  Christ  pru- 
dentially  withheld  himself  from  a  certain  kind  of  utter- 
ance concerning  his  kingdom  in  the  world.  It  would 
have  been  most  easy,  had  he  yielded  to  the  temptation, 
for  him  to  incite  the  spirit  of  insurrection  against 
Roman  rule  among  the  Judean  populations.  This  people 
continually  chafed  under  foreign  dominion,  and  would 
have  been  but  too  ready  to  summon  a  popular  idol 
to  lead  them  in  throwing  off  the  hated  yoke.  But  such 
a  move  as  this,  even  though  it  could  have  succeeded, 
would  have  been  utterly  aside  from,  as  well  as  vastly 
damaging  to,  Christ's  real  mission.  It  was  infinitely 
far  from  Christ's  purpose  to  excite,  upon  the  one  hand, 
the  spirit  of  popular  revolt,  or,  upon  the  other  hand, 
to  utter  any  word  or  perform  any  act  by  which  he  could 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  175 

justly  be  construed  as  personally  hostile  to  the  ruling 
powers.  Much,  therefore,  of  his  utterance  pertaining  to 
the  kingdom  was  veiled  in  apocalyptic  forms. 

Christ  doubtless  did  seek  to  impress  his  disciples  not 
only  with  the  paramount  importance  of  the  society 
which  he  termed  "my  kingdom,"  but  he  sought  also  to 
impress  them  with  its  supreme  worth  and  attractiveness 
as  compared  with  all  earthly  dominions.  In  order  to 
become  citizens  of  this  kingdom,  they,  if  needs  be,  could 
afford  to  forego  all  earthly  good,  to  endure  the  most 
fearful  persecutions,  and  to  count  it  all  joy.  In  the 
period  preceding  his  crucifixion,  and  after  he  had  an- 
nounced his  death,  while  he  always  spoke  with  the 
fullest  confidence  of  the  triumph  of  his  cause,  he  also 
frequently  intimated  that  after  his  death  he  must  return 
again  for  the  completion  of  his  kingdom  in  the  earth. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  early  disciples  were 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  conviction  of  Christ's  early 
bodily  return  to  earth,  and  with  the  expectation  that 
in  a  most  spectacular  way  he  would  visibly  set  up  his 
kingdom  among  men.  Saint  Paul  was  very  fully  pre- 
possessed with  this  idea,  and  he  even  expressed  the 
hope  that  he  might  himself  live  to  witness  his  Lord's 
coming. 

We  are  forced  to  conclude  that  this  conviction,  in 
the  form  in  which  it  was  held  by  the  early  Church, 
was  a  mistake.  It  was  owing  not  simply  to  a  popular, 
but  to  an  apostolic,  misconstruction  of  the  things  which 
Christ  himself  had  said.  So  far  as  may  be  seen,  we 
are  not  required  to  assume  that  any  inspiration  which 
the  apostolical  writers  possessed  would  necessarily  guard 
either  them  or  the  Church  against  such  mistaken  infer- 


176      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

ence.  In  the  meantime,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
this  view  of  the  early  Church  concerning  Christ's  speedy 
second  coming  did  serve  very  important  ends.  It  kept 
the  faith  and  the  patience  of  the  Church  firm  and  steady 
through  stress  of  storm  and  trial.  These  early  Christians 
lived  in  a  most  difficult  environment.  The  world  around 
them  was  rampant  in  wickedness  and  oppression.  The 
man  of  sin  stood  over  against  them  powerful,  defiant, 
cruel,  ruthless.  But  the  Christians  said:  "We  can 
endure.  We  serve  a  King  who  will  soon  appear  in 
majesty  to  stamp  out  this  wickedness,  and  to  cast  his 
enemies  into  the  dust.  The  night  may  be  bitter,  but 
it  is  brief.  We  can  be  patient,  for  when  he  comes  we 
shall  be  sharers  in  his  triumph  and  in  his  glory." 

It  is  not  my  purpose  here  to  attempt  any  critical 
analysis  of  the  New  Testament  teaching  concerning 
Christ's  second  coming.  This  teaching,  as  confessedly 
acknowledged  by  the  most  expert  exegetes,  is  fraught 
with  difficulties.  I  must  believe,  however,  whatever 
ulterior  meanings  in  some  cases  Christ's  utterances  con- 
cerning his  second  coming  may  legitimately  carry,  that 
the  great  body  of  these  utterances  have  from  Pentecost 
to  the  present  time  been  receiving  their  steady  fulfill- 
ment. Christ,  through  the  Spirit,  has  been  continuously 
in  the  world  building  his  kingdom  among  men.  The 
processes  of  this  kingdom  are  not  with  demonstration; 
they  are  not  of  that  spectacular  order  which  the  early 
disciples,  because  of  their  Jewish  conceptions  and  anticipa- 
tions, would  most  naturally  have  expected.  But  the 
kingdom  which  Christ  through  the  centuries  is  quietly 
building  carries  in  itself  a  real  glory  unpictured  by  its 
most  inspired  descriptions.     Its  real   values   transcend 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  177 

immeasurably  the  best  forecasts  of  its  prophets  and 
apostles.  It  is  a  kingdom  which  puts  all  earthly  rule 
under  a  shadow,  because  it  is  the  kingdom  of  God  among 
men.  Measured  by  time,  it  may  now  be  but  in  its 
beginnings,  but,  if  so,  it  is  surely,  steadily  working 
toward  that 

"One  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

The  conceptions  furnished  by  science,  cosmogony, 
geology,  evolution  help  to  poise  and  calm  us  with  a 
large  philosophy  as  to  God's  purposes  and  methods  with 
this  world.  One  thing  seems  certain,  God  has  taken 
abundant  time  to  prepare  the  earth  for  man's  advent. 
The  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  man  himself,  in 
his  first  coming  as  compared  with  his  higher  possibilities, 
was  but  a  rudimentary  being.  The  inference  would  seem 
reasonable  that  if  God  could  take  myriad  ages  in  which 
to  prepare  this  world  for  man's  citizenship,  then  he 
might  well  take  unlimited  time  to  perfect  the  being  for 
whom  such  a  world  was  so  patiently  made  ready.  And 
so  it  may  be  true  that 

"If  twenty  million  of  summers  are  stored  in  the  sunlight  still, 
We  are  far  from  the  noon  of  man,  there  is  time  for  the  race  to  grow." 

We  shall  think  sanely,  inspiringly,  of  Christ's  king- 
dom, the  kingdom  now  building,  when  we  conceive  of 
it  as  realizing  the  goal  of  all  divine  purposes  for  this 
world.  This  goal  has  been  pictured,  inadequately  but 
impressively,  as  "the  holy  city,  new  Jerusalem,  coming 
down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  husband."  It  is  pictured  as  a  country 
in  which  God  dwells  with  his  people,  where  all  tears 
are  wiped  away,  and  there  is  no  more  death,  neither 


178      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

sorrow,  nor  crying,  nor  any  more  pain,  for  these  former 
things  are  passed  away.  In  this  country  there  is  no 
temple  which  screens  God  from  the  vision  of  his  people, 
for  the  Lord  God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple 
thereof.  "And  the  city  hath  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither 
of  the  moon,  to  shine  in  it:  for  the  glory  of  God  is  present, 
and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof.  And  the  nations 
of  them  which  are  saved  shall  walk  in  the  light  of  it: 
and  the  kings  of  the  earth  shall  bring  their  glory  and 
honor  into  it.  And  there  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into 
it  anything  that  defileth,  neither  whatsoever  worketh 
abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie;  but  they  which  are  writ- 
ten in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life." 

This  picture  is  born  of  an  inspired  dream.  It  is 
characterized  by  limitations  of  Judaic  thought,  colored 
by  Judaic  imagery.  It  is,  therefore,  provincial  and 
inadequate  to  its  real  subject.  But  in  spirit  it  is  true. 
It  thrills  and  glows  with  a  far-off  glory  of  Christ's  per- 
fected kingdom  in  the  earth. 

We  must  now  ask,  What  are  the  agencies  and  what 
the  methods  through  which  Christ's  kingdom  is  to  be 
developed?  The  moment  when  Christ,  in  response  to 
their  request,  gave  to  his  disciples  a  model  prayer  must 
have  been  one  of  great  significance.  Is  there  anything 
in  this  prayer  which  may  help  to  guide  our  thought? 
The  petition  is  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom.  This 
petition  seems  to  be  inseparably  bound  up  with  the 
ideal  that  when  the  kingdom  shall  really  come  the  will 
of  God  will  then  be  done  by  men  on  earth  even  as  it  is 
now  done  by  the  unsinning  citizens  of  heaven.  A  very 
first  condition  of  the  kingdom,  then,  is  the  filial  human 
heart,  the  enthronement  in  the  individual  bosom  of  a 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  179 

will  whose  outgoings  toward  God  are  those  of  obedience 
and  love.  And  this  condition  cannot  be  overemphasized. 
It  must  be  said  that  the  initial  and  vital  fact  upon 
which  Jesus  confidently  and  fearlessly  rests  all  his  hopes 
for  the  future  welfare  of  human  society  is  in  the  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  the  regenerated  individual.  The 
interior  soul  made  luminous,  hopeful,  and  strong  with 
his  own  indwelling  life  is  the  single  center  from  which 
he  proposes  to  construct  all  his  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness, purity,  good  will,  and  happiness  among  men. 
The  constructive  forces  of  his  kingdom  do  not  primarily 
arise  from  outward  environment  nor  from  material 
conditions.  They  proceed  from  within  outward.  Social- 
ism emphasizes  environment.  Its  logic,  when  reduced 
to  the  last  analysis,  is,  give  a  man  good  surroundings, 
endow  him  with  material  plenty,  and  his  life  will  be 
right.  Experience  is  far  from  confirming  the  soundness 
of  this  philosophy.  Multitudes  of  men  in  the  best 
material  environment  have  developed  gross  and  infamous 
lives.  Not  that  a  proper  stress  may  not  be  laid  upon 
the  quality  of  material  environment.  There  are  environ- 
ments in  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  develop  valuable 
character,  surroundings  that  brutalize  life,  and  in  whose 
sodden  atmosphere  no  beautiful  thing  can  grow.  It 
will  be  a  part  of  the  important  mission  of  the  kingdom 
to  make  impossible  foul  habitations.  But,  while  Christ 
is  not  indifferent  to  environment,  his  method  is,  through 
personal  regeneration  of  character,  to  create  the  forces 
in  the  soul  which  shall  make  it  impossible  for  men  to 
tolerate,  or  to  continue  in,  an  environment  which  bru- 
talizes. Regenerated  lives  are  creative;  they  cannot  rest 
satisfied  with  depraved  or  insanitary  surroundings.     The 


180      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

real  constructive  forces  of  Christ's  kingdom,  then,  are 
born  within  and  projected  from  hearts  which  have  been 
transformed  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  On  such  hearts 
Christ  conditions  absolutely  the  moral  and  social  recon- 
struction of  the  world.  This  program  reviewed  simply 
from  the  standpoint  of  human  wisdom  may  seem  both 
radical  and  impracticable.  But,  if  so,  it  is  the  radicalism 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  makes  no  mistakes. 

The  fatal  hindrance  to  the  incoming  of  Christ's  king- 
dom is  alienated  human  wills — wills  which  not  only  do 
not  seek  to  realize  the  will  of  God,  but  which  habituate 
themselves  in  doing  that  which  God  forbids.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  over  such  wills  the  kingdom  cannot  reign. 
The  exorcising  from  the  individual  will  of  the  spirit 
of  alienation  toward,  of  disharmony  with,  God  is  clearly, 
then,  an  indispensable  condition  for  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom  into  the  individual  life.  But  the  individual, 
though  but  a  unit  in,  stands  vitally  related  to,  the 
social  compact.  Society  is  the  relationship  in  which  not 
only  the  individual  develops  mostly  his  significance  and 
values,  but  it  furnishes  also  the  sphere  of  his  personal 
influence,  the  sphere  in  which  his  character  and  conduct 
tell  for  good  or  evil  upon  the  lives  of  others  about  him. 
This  is  the  philosophy  of  the  kingdom — the  leaven  of 
righteous  character  working  in  the  meal  of  society. 
The  ideal  citizen  of  the  kingdom  is  no  neutral  or  inactive 
force.  He  must  be  in  himself  a  fountain  of  Christlike 
sympathies,  a  battery  of  moral  energy,  an  active  doer 
of  the  will  of  God  among  men.  Having  himself  come 
under  the  dominion  of  the  kingdom,  he  must  seek  to 
win  others  to  the  same  rule.  It  is  by  this  process  that 
the  kingdom  is  to  widen  among  men. 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  181 

But,  given  the  filial  heart  and  will,  still  very  much 
will  depend  upon  the  conception  under  which  the  builder 
shall  do  his  work.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
the  worker  shall  intelligently  apprehend  the  divine  will. 
For  high  service  it  is  not  enough  to  be  willing;  it  is 
necessary  to  be  intelligent.  It  is  vastly  important  to 
the  efficiency  of  the  worker  that  in  addition  to  the 
spirit  of  consecration  he  shall  have  some  inspiring  meas- 
urement of  his  opportunity,  of  the  field  of  his  action 
and  responsibility.  The  poverty  of  the  Church  has 
often  been  the  poverty  of  its  ideals.  In  general,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  largeness  of  God's  thought  for 
the  world  has  dawned  most  slowly  even  upon  the  Chris- 
tian mind.  Men  of  conscience  and  of  power  have  pro- 
moted the  infamy  of  the  Inquisition,  and  have  condemned 
to  martyrdom  honest  and  heroic  thinkers  apparently  on 
the  ground  that  a  man's  intellectual  attitude  toward 
dogma  is  in  the  sight  of  God  more  important  than  the 
moral  state  of  his  heart.  The  ultra-Romanist  has  sin- 
cerely believed  that  outside  of  his  Church  there  is  no 
salvation.  The  small  Churchman  has  insisted  that 
Christ  has  no  validly  ordained  ministers  save  such  as 
have  come  to  their  function  through  the  viaduct  of  the 
apostolical  succession — itself  an  absurd  fable  construed 
as  history.  From  some  quarters  it  might  be  inferred 
that  the  Christian  Church  is  largely  a  matter  of  priestly 
orders,  of  ministerial  uniform,  of  ritual  and  of  ceremony, 
an  institution  in  which  the  highest  court  etiquette  is 
of  saving  importance. 

It  is  a  most  sad  thing  to  discover  how  out  of  per- 
spective with  the  largeness  of  divine  Fatherhood  has 
been  very  much  of  so-called  Christian  thinking.     There 


1 82       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

has  been  a  great  deal  of  devotion  that  has  been  accom- 
panied with  poor  ideals,  ideals  that  have  been  hard, 
narrow,  bearing  little  or  no  likeness  to  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  Poor  conceptions  of  the  nature  and  mission  of 
the  kingdom  cannot  mean  other  than  defective  or  mis- 
directed service.  Zeal  and  ignorance  are  an  unsafe 
partnership. 

The  ideal  of  the  kingdom  is  divine.  It  is  so  large  as 
not  to  be  shut  within  the  boundaries  of  family,  clan, 
nationality,  race,  or  any  ecclesiasticism.  It  embraces  in 
its  beneficent  purpose  the  entire  human  race.  The  ideal 
worker  in  and  for  this  kingdom  is  the  man  who  not 
only  sincerely  wills  to  do  the  will  of  God,  but  whose 
own  intelligence  most  clearly  and  broadly  grasps  the 
divine  thought  of  the  kingdom  itself.  In  a  strict,  but 
correct,  sense  it  must  be  seen  that  the  working  forces 
of  the  kingdom  are  neither  other-worldly  nor  imprac- 
ticable. God's  plans  fit  into  the  order  of  man's  physical, 
social,  and  intellectual  necessities.  They  lie  on  the 
plane  of  an  industrial  and  working  humanity.  It  is  to 
be  noted  that,  while  Christ  summoned  men  to  his  dis- 
cipleship,  it  was  not  his  rule  to  separate  them  from 
their  industrial  callings.  Simon  and  his  brethren  were 
fishermen  when  Christ  first  met  them,  and  at  the  time  of 
his  last  recorded  meeting  with  them  they  were  still  fisher- 
men. So  it  is  not  in  the  nature  or  purpose  of  the  kingdom 
to  lessen  the  volume  of  the  world's  industries,  to  curtail 
legitimate  trade,  nor  to  withdraw  incentive  from  in- 
ventive ingenuity.  Under  the  kingdom  agriculture,  trade, 
commerce,  invention,  literature,  art,  science,  learning, 
government,  institutions  promotive  of  human  good,  the 
increasing  annexation  and  conversion  of  nature's  forces 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  183 

to  human  uses — all  will  proceed  normally,  only  with 
accelerated  pace  because  conducted  under  bettered  con- 
ditions. It  will  be  through  these  very  instrumentalities 
that  the  kingdom  itself  will  largely  manifest  its  per- 
fections and  yield  its  beneficent  fruitage.  We  must,  then, 
divest  ourselves  of  all  ideas  of  any  inadaptation  of 
Christ's  kingdom  to  this  mundane  life.  The  ghostly  idea 
that  Christian  character  can  best  flourish  in  separation 
from  the  world  and  its  activities  has  long  haunted  Chris- 
tian thought.  But  the  idea  itself  is  wholly  un-Christian. 
The  kingdom  is  to  come  to  its  final  perfection  by  utilizing 
the  natural  resources  of  the  earth,  and  by  working  the 
machinery  of  the  industrial  and  social  organisms. 

One  of  the  most  important  qualifications  of  the  individ- 
ual worker  is  that  he  be  inspired  with  a  sense  of  the 
divinity  of  service.  When  to  right  will  and  intelligence 
there  is  added  the  spirit  of  supreme  consecration  to  the 
interests  of  the  kingdom  we  have  reached  the  conditions 
of  the  ideal  worker.  The  greatest  emphasis  is  often 
that  of  paradox.  This  is  the  method  by  which  Christ 
emphasized  his  abhorrence  of  the  selfish,  the  self-centered 
life:  "He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it:  and  he  that 
loseth  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it."  "Whosoever 
will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister;  and 
whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your 
servant."  It  was  to  such  a  policy  of  life  that  Christ 
utterly  gave  himself.  This  philosophy  is  a  stumbling- 
block  and  foolishness  to  the  selfish  mind;  but  it  is  a 
philosophy  which  has  won  the  lasting  plaudits  of  man- 
kind. Christ,  who  most  literally  and  finally  gave  himself, 
has  awakened  the  undying  enthusiasms  of  the  centuries. 
And  if  we  search  history  for  the  roster  of  names  most 


1 84       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

sacredly  enthroned  in  the  love  of  the  race,  we  shall 
find  them  not  among  the  powerful,  the  rich,  or  the 
selfish,  but  among  those  who  have  given  themselves  in 
unselfish  and  exalted  service  for  mankind,  among  those 
who  have  shown  the  spirit  of  splendid  sacrifice  in  behalf 
of  their  fellows. 

And  this  but  illustrates  the  divine  law  of  compen- 
sation. He  that  gives  shall  receive,  he  that  loses  his 
life  shall  find  it  again.  He  who  in  most  perfect  self- 
forgetfulness  gives  himself  for  the  service  of  humanity 
shall  come  to  glorious  resurrection  and  transfiguration 
in  the  fruits  and  triumphs  of  the  kingdom  itself.  In 
relation  to  this  great  principle  much  of  the  teaching 
in  practice  of  the  Christian  Church  has  been  poor  and 
barren.  An  enormous  emphasis  has  been  laid  upon  the 
importance  of  securing  one's  individual  salvation,  but 
the  divine  spirit  of  service  for  others  in  which  the  soul 
shall  find  its  own  largest  development,  and  finally  be 
most  secure  in  the  matter  of  its  own  salvation,  has 
been  largely  lost  sight  of.  It  is  prophetic  of  the  larger 
place  which  the  kingdom  has  reached  in  the  common 
Christian  intelligence  that  now  so  clear  an  emphasis  is 
laid  upon  the  importance  of  saving  the  community  as 
well  as  the  individual  soul. 

The  law  of  service  is  measured  by  stewardship.  No 
man  is  his  own  master,  but  must  live  as  one  who  is  to 
render  an  account  of  every  investment  which  he  makes 
of  his  Lord's  treasure.  The  law  of  stewardship  applies 
to  every  life  and  to  every  talent.  Gifts  for  service  vary 
as  widely  as  the  aptitudes  and  possessions  of  men;  but 
under  the  law  of  the  kingdom  each  man  is  responsible 
for  the  best  investment  of  all  his  powers.     No  man  has 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  185 

a  right  to  bury  his  talent.  It  may  be  that  a  majority 
of  men  are  of  the  one-talent  order,  but,  if  so,  these  are 
under  as  supreme  obligation  to  put  their  capital  to 
service  as  though  they  were  the  directors  of  empires. 
Every  possession  that  may  be  utilized  for  advancing 
the  weal  of  society  is  by  so  much  a  measure  of  the  moral 
responsibility  of  its  holder.  And  there  are  no  two 
standards  of  stewardship.  A  vicious  method  of  thinking 
has  assigned  to  the  saint  one  and  to  the  sinner  another 
standard  of  obligation  for  the  use  of  gifts.  It  has  been 
common  to  assume  that  the  Christian  minister,  by 
virtue  of  his  calling,  may  be  justly  held  to  one  standard 
of  conduct,  while  his  neighbor  who  makes  no  profession 
may  be  freely  excused  in  the  doing  of  that  for  which 
the  minister  would  be  condemned.  The  kingdom  knows 
no  such  double  standard.  Every  man  alike  is  held 
responsible  for  living  on  the  fore-edge  of  his  best  light. 
There  are  not  two  spheres  in  the  kingdom,  the  one 
spiritual,  the  other  profane.  The  kind  of  distinction 
which  has  been  much  capitalized  in  the  interest  of  selfish 
motives,  of  a  sacred  and  a  profane  order  in  the  world, 
and  both  legitimate,  is  one  which  the  kingdom  does  not 
recognize.  Its  very  assumption  is  an  intellectual  blas- 
phemy. The  standards  of  the  kingdom  are  made  for 
only  one  world,  and  this  God's  world. 

Stewardship,  then,  is  the  measurement  of  the  law 
under  which  every  man  is  held  divinely  responsible  for 
investing  all  his  powers  for  the  good  of  the  world.  The 
preacher  in  his  place  is  to  do  his  utmost  to  magnify 
the  gospel  of  his  Master.  All  professions  in  command 
of  exceptional  resources  must  direct  these  resources  to 
the  highest  ends  of  moral  service.     The  men  of  trade 


1 86       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

must  acquire  the  secret  of  equitable  methods,  methods 
that  shall  deal  honestly  and  helpfully  to  the  world 
which  they  serve. 

In  most  definite  and  stressful  teaching  Christ  makes 
it  appear  that  there  is  no  source  of  power  to  which 
the  law  of  the  kingdom  more  exactingly  or  critically 
applies  than  for  the  moral  uses  of  wealth.  It  would  be 
folly  to  assume  that  Christ  had  any  innate  or  acquired 
prejudice  against  wealth  in  itself  considered.  We  know 
that  many  of  his  personal  friends  were  possessors  of 
wealth.  He  was  a  frequent  guest  in  the  homes  of  the 
rich.  He  lived  altogether  on  too  high  a  plane  to  permit 
him  to  judge  of  the  worth  of  men  from  either  their 
possession  of  or  lack  of  riches.  But  no  moral  teacher 
was  ever  so  clear  and  emphatic  in  his  warnings  against 
the  dangers  and  the  perversions  of  wealth  as  was  Jesus 
the  Christ.  Indeed,  some  of  Christ's  utterances  con- 
cerning wealth  are  of  such  a  character  that  they  could 
easily  be  used  as  rallying  texts  for  the  most  radical 
socialist.  He  says:  "How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God!  It  is  easier  for 
a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle."  He  bids 
men  beware  of  the  deceitfulness  of  riches.  This  deceit- 
fulness  is  a  thing  that  chokes  the  word  of  life  out  of 
the  soul,  and  makes  character  spiritually  and  morally 
barren.  There  is  probably  no  process  more  subtle 
than  that  by  which  the  love  of  money  steals  its  march 
upon  the  soul,  engrossing  and  enslaving  the  life.  Men 
become  victims  of  its  degradation  without  being  con- 
scious of  its  bondage.  Francis  of  Assisi  said  that  he  had 
in  the  confessional  received  acknowledgment  of  all 
kinds  of  sin,   but  never  once  a  confession  revealing  a 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  187 

consciousness  of  covetousness.  The  deceitfulness  of  riches 
is  something  so  alluringly  fatal  that  its  most  hopeless 
victims  seem  never  to  know  of  its  presence.  Yet  the 
man  who  is  prosperous  and  rich,  and  who  at  the  same 
time  is  forgetful  of  the  higher  interests  of  life,  is  one 
whom  Christ  brands  as  a  fool.  One  of  the  most  scathing 
parables  which  fell  from  his  lips  is  that  which  describes 
the  rich  man  who  finally  lifted  up  his  eyes  in  hopeless 
torment  because  during  his  lifetime  he  had  forgotten  to 
discharge  the  social  obligations  of  his  wealth.  An  im- 
pressive scene  is  that  in  which  the  young  man  of  clean 
habits,  of  outwardly  respectable  life,  and  who  doubtless 
felt  in  his  soul  a  yearning  for  higher  things,  yet  went 
away  hopeless  and  sorrowful  because  under  Christ's 
illuminating  test  he  had  been  made  to  see  that  in  his 
soul  a  love  of  wealth  was  a  passion  above  that  for  all 
better  values.  Christ  did  not  condemn  wealth,  but  it 
is  certain  that  against  no  perils  of  the  soul  did  he  utter 
more  vivid  warnings  than  against  the  dangers  of  riches 
to  their  possessors. 

I  am  well  aware  that  many  rich  men  deceive  them- 
selves by  the  belief  that  their  investments  in  the  world 
of  trade  prove  a  serviceable  distribution  of  money. 
This  indeed  is  true.  No  man  can  invest  his  means  with- 
out putting  his  wealth  into  general  circulation  and  thereby 
benefiting,  it  may  be  in  a  large  way,  the  world  of  trade.  But 
it  is  not  in  this  sense  in  which  Christ  holds  the  rich  man 
responsible  for  the  uses  of  his  wealth.  This  kind  of  in- 
vestment may  all  be  conducted  upon  the  most  selfish  plane. 
It  is  simply  receiving  in  return  that  for  which  investment 
is  made.  The  kingdom  holds  wealth  responsible  for  moral 
and  benevolent,  for  unselfish,  service  to  mankind. 


1 88      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

It  is  good  evidence  of  the  growing  rule  of  Christian 
sentiment  among  men  that  the  best  thought  of  the 
present  age  gives  full  approval  of  Christ's  view  as  to 
the  moral  uses  of  wealth.  This  is  often  called  a  material- 
istic age.  Wealth  as  a  gross  element  doubtless  too 
much  influences  social  thinking.  It  is  an  element  of 
power  by  which  often  its  possessor  commands  influence 
and  standing  to  which  his  intrinsic  character  would 
in  no  way  entitle  him.  But,  nevertheless,  the  feeling 
is  increasingly  general  that  it  is  something  discreditable 
for  a  rich  man  not  to  be  a  real  benefactor  of  his  age. 
Riches  in  this  day  are  so  common  that  they  may  be 
literally  considered  vulgar  unless  marked  by  devotion 
to  high  service.  One  of  the  most  noted  capitalists  and 
philanthropists  of  the  age  is  author  of  the  famous  state- 
ment, "He  who  dies  rich  dies  disgraced."  The  daily 
press,  not  overmuch  given  to  moral  lecturing,  not  infre- 
quently takes  occasion  to  voice  the  popular  surprise 
and  disapproval  when  a  rich  man  dies  and  leaves  nothing 
to  benevolence.  The  miser  has  always  been  despicable. 
The  man  who  is  so  enslaved  by  the  love  of  money,  who 
makes  the  dollar  his  standard  of  value  for  both  men 
and  things  sold  in  the  market,  who  successfully  usurps 
the  machinery  of  modern  trade  to  add  to  his  greedy 
hoards,  yet  who  goes  through  life  steeling  his  own  heart 
against  the  spirit  of  benevolence,  and  turning  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  cries  for  service  which  rise  to  him  on  every 
hand — this  man  awakens  an  intense  but  mixed  feeling 
in  the  moral  community.  Some  look  upon  him  with 
pity,  others  with  contempt,  all  with  disapproval.  Such 
a  man  is  a  misplacement  under  all  high  moral  standards. 
Commanding  enormous  power  to  serve,  he  is  untrue  to 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  189 

his  stewardship.  Between  him  and  the  real  spirit  of 
the  kingdom  there  is  still  the  difficult  passage  of  the 
needle's  eye. 

Money  is  not  in  itself  an  evil.  Whatever  severity 
of  emphasis  Christ  may  have  put  upon  the  perils  of 
wealth,  he  gives  it  a  place  of  high  value  in  the  service 
of  his  kingdom.  Under  the  law  of  the  kingdom  all  gifts 
come  to  perfection  in  the  measure  of  their  devotion 
to  service. 

In  the  distribution  of  endowments  God  has  just  as 
certainly  given  to  some  men  aptitudes  for  business  as 
to  others  talent  for  poetry,  for  music,  or  for  eloquence. 
A  man's  calling  should  be  sacred.  It  is  the  sphere 
which  furnishes  him  at  once  the  opportunity  and  the 
implements  for  service.  The  man  who  has  a  talent 
for  making  an  honest  fortune,  a  fortune  whose  processes 
are  not  destructive  but  constructive  of  the  interests  of 
society,  and  who  conscientiously  uses  this  fortune  as 
a  steward  of  the  kingdom,  is  one  whom  God  has  ordained 
for  great  honors.  The  kingdom  has  increasing  need  of 
such  men.    They  belong  to  the  elect  nobility  of  God's  sons. 

A  catalogue  of  the  institutions  which  are  to  serve 
in  building  the  kingdom  must  include  all  agencies  which 
conserve,  or  contribute  to,  human  weal.  The  family 
is  God's  first  and  most  sacred  nursery  and  training 
school  of  citizenship.  The  Church  is  a  great  university 
for  spiritual  teaching  and  moral  nurture.  It  is  vastly 
endowed  and  equipped  for  inspiring  the  world  with  the 
high  ideals  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  the  one  institution 
whose  distinctive  mission  it  is  to  evangelize  the  world. 
But  the  Church,  great  as  is  its  mission,  is  but  one  of 
the  agencies   of  the  kingdom.     The  school,   the  press, 


i9o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

legislation,  the  courts  of  law,  benevolent  institutions, 
are  all  to  be  taken  possession  of  and  conducted  in  the 
spirit  and  in  the  interests  of  the  kingdom.  Art,  science, 
the  entire  machinery  of  business,  everything  that  con- 
tributes to  the  betterment  of  human  life — all  is  to  be 
under  moral  direction  and  control.  This  means  that 
from  human  society  vicious  traffics,  amusements  that 
debase,  organized  evil,  environments  that  brutalize,  are 
to  be  eliminated;  that  the  earth  through  enlightenment, 
through  applied  science  and  art,  is  to  be  evolved  as 
a  fit  physical  habitation  for  the  sons  of  God.  This 
means  the  best  sanitary  conditions  and  a  minimum  of 
disease,  the  most  perfect  productiveness  of  nature,  the 
carrying  of  the  heavy  burdens  of  humar  drudgery 
and  of  the  world's  industries  by  natural  forces,  the 
releasing  to  the  worker  of  such  plenty  and  leisure  as 
may  be  essential  to  his  best  development.  So  far  as 
human  society  is  concerned,  it  will  be  the  realization 
of  a  true  theocracy,  the  fulfillment  of  the  vision  of  the 
Revelator,  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  in  which 
dwelleth  righteousness. 

Such  are  some  of  the  indicators  of  the  kingdom  which 
Christ  came  to  erect  in  the  earth.  And  is  it  all  a  vision- 
ary dream  ?  Not  so.  There  has  been  much  discussion — 
probably  most  of  it  very  unintelligent — as  to  the  unrecon- 
cilable  differences  between  science  and  the  Christian 
faith.  But  in  the  great  ends  toward  which  they  both 
look  there  would  seem  to  be  a  most  significant  harmony. 
Evolution  works  toward  a  consummate  race  living  in 
a  world  transformed  by  science.  Christian  faith  looks 
toward  a  kingdom  of  righteousness  into  whose  perfection 
are  wrought  all   the   finished   products   of  industry,   of 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  191 

science,  of  art,  of  invention.  The  prophetic  goal  of 
both  science  and  faith  is  a  perfected  humanity. 

That  enormous  obstacles,  obstacles  of  a  seemingly 
insuperable  character,  stand  in  the  way  of  this  realiza- 
tion, cannot  be  ignored.  One  truth  which  needs  to 
be  domesticated  in  universal  conviction  is  Christ's  view 
of  the  worth  of  man  as  man.  Christ  habitually  treated 
human  nature  with  a  reverence  due  to  divinity.  This 
was  doubtless  owing  to  his  clear  view  of  the  infinite 
possibilities  of  the  human  soul.  Much  of  Christ's  active 
ministry  was  passed  among  the  very  poor  and  often 
among  the  most  forlorn  in  the  social  communities.  But 
he  always  treated  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  those  on  the 
very  rim  of  society,  with  a  consideration  which  could 
only  be  born  of  a  divine  view  of  man's  worth.  He 
had  that  far  vision  of  the  soul's  possibilities  which  made 
him  feel  always  in  the  presence  of  human  nature,  however 
garbed  in  poverty  or  uninspiring  its  environments, 
that  he  was  dealing  with  something  of  divine  and  in- 
finite values. 

In  the  Louvre  of  Paris  is  a  picture  by  Murillo,  "The 
Miracle  of  San  Diego."  The  figures  are  of  life  size. 
Through  an  open  door  two  noblemen  and  a  priest  enter 
a  kitchen.  To  their  amazement  they  find  that  all 
the  maids  are  angels,  dividing  between  themselves  the 
work  of  the  place.  It  is  a  parable  in  art  of  the  divinity 
of  the  common  toiler.  These  persons  discharging  a 
work  rated  as  drudgery  are  themselves  radiant  with 
divine  kinship,  and  under  their  hands  life's  daily  toil 
itself  is  glorified.  This  Christlike  conception  as  thus 
pictured  on  Murillo's  canvas  needs  universal  acceptance 
as  a  vital  condition  of  the  kingdom  itself. 


1 92       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Prevalence  of  this  view  would  go  far  toward  settling 
all  discords  which  now  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world. 
If  the  rich  and  the  poor  were  to  meet  each  other  on 
the  high  plane  of  this  conviction  that  they  are  brothers 
in  immortality,  peers  in  the  inheritances  of  God's  chil- 
dren, there  could  not  long  persist  a  warfare  between 
capital  and  labor,  there  could  continue  no  invidious 
distinctions  in  society.  Men  would  no  longer  be  esti- 
mated by  the  mere  accidents  or  incidents  of  fortune, 
but  on  the  basis  of  moral  character. 

In  any  large  thought  of  the  kingdom  it  cannot  be 
forgotten  that  very  much  of  the  world  is  still  in  its 
intellectual  and  moral  infancy.  There  are  inferior  races 
which  are  not  only  not  in  the  procession,  but  they  are 
hardly  aware  of  the  march  of  modern  civilization.  Among 
all  these  the  leaven  of  the  kingdom  must  work.  Wher- 
ever man  exists  with  possibilities  of  spiritual  life  and 
of  moral  growth,  there  is  a  candidate  for  citizenship 
in  the  kingdom.  The  mission  of  the  kingdom  will, 
and  can,  never  be  completed  until  its  seed  has  been 
richly  sown  in  every  soil  of  humanity.  When  Christ's 
view  of  human  worth  shall  take  its  rightful  place  in 
the  convictions  of  the  educated  and  powerful  nations, 
then  these  nations  will  become  missionary  in  their 
spirit,  and  trade  and  commerce  will  be  allies  with  the 
moral  and  educational  forces  which  shall  work  for  the 
reclamation  and  uplift  of  all  the  outlying  and  unpriv- 
ileged families  of  mankind.  The  vision  of  leaders  in 
the  kingdom  must  be  inspired  with  the  largeness  and 
completeness  of  God's  purposes  for  the  entire  world. 

The  noontide  glories  of  the  kingdom  may  be  far  or 
near.     Be  this  as  it  may,  before  its  coming  the  tempers 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  193 

of  the  gospel  must  be  enthroned  in  human  society. 
In  the  great  world  of  trade,  now  so  vitiated  by  motives 
of  piracy,  an  enlightened  sense  of  equity  must  sub- 
stitute all  spirit  of  destructive  rivalry.  In  the  industrial 
world  ideals  of  manhood,  and  not  lust  of  gold,  must 
be  in  control.  God  is  dealing  with  this  world  for  the 
purpose  of  developing  a  race  of  Godlike  men.  Before 
the  kingdom  can  have  sway  all  industries  and  business 
must  subordinate  themselves  to  this  divine  ideal.  The 
ideals  of  the  world  must  so  far  change  as  to  place  man- 
hood everywhere,  let  it  appear  in  whatsoever  guise,  at 
high  premium  over  all  things  else.  There  may  not 
then  be  less  labor  than  now.  Labor,  so  far  from  being 
a  curse,  is  wellnigh  God's  one  condition,  and  will  always 
remain  so,  to  the  highest  reach  of  soul.  Masterful 
faculty,  faculty  which  sways  with  force,  has  always 
developed  the  thews  of  its  victory  in  overcoming  diffi- 
culties and  in  capturing  achievements  on  toilsome  path- 
ways. Indeed,  I  am  unable  to  think  of  any  heaven 
hereafter  where  the  highest  possibilities  of  the  saint, 
the  sublimest  reach  into  Godlike  character,  will  not 
forever  be  dependent  upon  faculties  which  shall  be  put 
into  active  and  ceaseless  stretch  for  attainment. 

This  world,  then,  when  lifted  to  the  highest  plane, 
will  always  demand  the  laboring  hand  and  the  toiling 
brain.  And,  while  the  perfection  of  invention  shall  be 
such  as  to  redeem  labor  largely  from  its  menial  features, 
there  will  always  be  grades  of  work  some  of  which  may 
not  in  themselves  be  as  congenial  as  other  grades.  Needed 
service,  however,  of  any  order  under  the  standards  of 
the  kingdom  will  be  translated  to  a  place  of  honor. 
In  the  day  when  Christian  ideals  prevail  manhood  will 


i94       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

be  the  highest  and  most  valued  thing  on  the  earth. 
In  that  day  men  will  not  be  graded  by  the  kind  of  work 
they  do,  but  by  the  kind  of  men  they  are.  The  passion 
for  humanity,  God's  humanity,  will  be  such  that  legis- 
lation, law,  education,  and  all  the  forces  that  mold 
the  commonwealth,  will  be  in  conspiracy  to  guard  the 
pathway  of  every  child  born  into  the  world  with  the 
highest  conditions  and  ministries  of  life. 

The  bringing  of  the  kingdom  will  demand  great  moral 
leadership.  Every  uplifting  departure  of  the  race,  every 
new  moral  epoch,  has  arrived  under  the  ordained  leader- 
ship of  the  providential  man.  As  a  condition  for  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  there  will  be  no  greater  need 
than  for  prophetic  men,  a  type  of  men  that  cannot 
spring  either  from  the  spirit  of  sodden  and  depressed 
labor  nor  from  the  mammon-blinded  ranks  of  selfish 
wealth.  The  leader  for  the  future  must  be  a  man  in- 
spired with  God's  own  vision,  one  who  comes  to  his 
mission  as  from  the  presence  of  burning  bush  or  of 
transfiguring  glories. 

It  may  be  truly  said  that  never  were  the  prophetic 
conditions  of  the  kingdom  so  visibly  present  or  of  such 
manifest  purport  as  now.  Never  before  in  the  vast 
ferment  of  human  thought  was  there  such  a  leaven  of 
Christian  ideas  as  to-day.  Never  was  there  such  a 
challenge  from  the  popular  conscience  against  organized 
wrong,  never  such  a  call  for  a  sense  of  moral  steward- 
ship for  the  uses  of  wealth.  This  age  not  only  witnesses 
and  welcomes  unparalleled  benevolences,  but  it  accentu- 
ates as  no  other  the  necessity  for  justice  to  all  men. 
Christian  ethical  and  altruistic  ideas,  as  never  before, 
like  a  searching  sea  tide,  are  pressing  on  all  the  shore 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  195 

lines  of  the  world's  thinking.  To  the  observer  who  has 
capacity  to  brush  the  mists  of  the  night  from  his  eye- 
lashes, the  tops  of  the  mountains  round  about  are  agleam 
with  the  light  of  divine  promise  for  the  future. 

Steam  navigation  and  the  telegraph  have  made  the 
nations  one  neighborhood,  while  trade  and  commerce 
are  bringing  all  mankind  into  one  community  of  interest. 
Keeping  even  flight  with  these  electric-winged  forces, 
Christian  thought  will  carry  its  enlightenment,  its  culture, 
its  science,  its  own  persuasiveness,  to  all  the  peoples 
of  the  earth.  As  these  factors  come  under  moral  direc- 
tion they  will  more  and  more  prove  agencies  for  trans- 
lating the  nations  into  the  kingdom. 

The  missions  of  the  Christian  Church  have  mapped 
the  territories  of  the  world,  have  made  for  themselves 
grammars  and  lexicons  of  all  languages,  have  mastered 
the  histories  of  heathen  religions,  and  are  planting  the 
seats  of  Christian  education  in  the  capitals  of  paganism. 
It  is  in  the  very  nature  of  Christian  truth,  when  once 
it  has  intrenched  itself  in  the  convictions  and  expe- 
riences of  the  human  soul,  to  propagate  itself.  Every 
successful  mission  station  becomes  at  once  the  head- 
quarters of  a  new  moral  community,  the  fountain  of 
pure  ideals  and  of  spiritual  enlightenment,  the  nucleus 
of  a  new  civilization.  The  historian  or  the  traveler 
who  in  these  days  seeks  to  minify  the  significance  of 
Christian  missions  is  both  benighted  and  belated. 

A  world  congress,  composed  of  elect  men  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth — of  active  missionaries,  of  represent- 
ative clergymen,  of  noted  scholars,  of  laymen  of  inter- 
national reputation — counseling  together  in  the  spirit  of 
sustained  enthusiasm  as  to  the  best  methods  of  utilizing 


196      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

and  harmonizing  the  forces  of  missions  for  the  more 
speedy  Christianizing  of  the  heathen  world,  is  a  move- 
ment big  with  history  and  prophecy.  When  it  is  remem- 
bered that  missions  as  a  distinct  institution  are  really 
of  recent  origin,  and  when  it  is  sought  to  measure  their 
splendid  moral  achievements,  or  to  understand  the 
growing  conviction  ^nd  enthusiasm  with  which  the  entire 
Christian  world  gives  them  its  support,  there  is  furnished 
a  vision  which  should  put  to  shame  all  our  skepticism. 
Christian  missions,  as  justly  measured,  carry  in  them- 
selves the  promise  and  potency  of  the  world's  conquest 
to  Christ. 

The  rediscovery  of  the  historic  Christ,  and  the  new 
uncovering  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  divine  Father- 
hood and  of  human  brotherhood  as  set  forth  in  his 
gospel,  are  themselves  facts  that  are  to  have  bearings 
of  untold  significance  upon  the  world-progress  of  the 
kingdom.  Providentially,  there  has  been  a  long  prepara- 
tion and  converging  of  events  for  the  world  advent 
of  Jesus  the  Christ.  Through  missionary  literature, 
through  the  wide  invasion  of  Western  thought  into 
Oriental  civilizations,  through  the  increasing  numbers  of 
elect  young  minds  from  the  Orient  who  are  being  edu- 
cated in  the  Christian  universities  of  the  West,  and  by 
ways  innumerable,  it,  as  a  distinct  phenomenon  of  this 
age,  would  seem  to  be  the  fact  that  Christ  is  moving 
irresistibly  onward  into  all  the  seats  of  the  world's 
thinking  to  take  his  rightful  place  as  Saviour  and 
Sovereign. 

Wherever  Christ  secures  for  himself  full  recognition, 
that  recognition  carries  with  it  a  quality  of  conquest 
which  it  is  not  easy  to  define  or  to  measure.     Christ 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  197 

himself  has  compared  it  to  the  leaven  in  the  measure 
of  meal.  The  influence  of  Christ's  character  and  teach- 
ing goes  nowhere  without  becoming  a  pervasive  and 
transforming  force  in  human  society.  It  sweetens  the 
social  atmosphere  as  the  very  breath  of  heaven,  and 
from  its  inspiration  there  come  new  and  creative  ideals 
for  the  shaping  of  human  character.  Morally  it  is  an 
influence  which  causes  the  desert  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 
Broadly  measured,  no  better  illustration  of  the  leavening 
influence  of  the  kingdom  need  be  asked  than  is  furnished 
in  the  contrast  between  the  moral  character  of  present 
Western  civilizations  and  that  of  Rome,  for  instance, 
in  the  reign  of  Nero.  Historians  who  cannot  be  per- 
sonally charged  with  undue  leanings  toward  Christianity 
are  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  changes  for 
betterment  between  these  two  periods  are  most  largely 
due  to  Christianity.  Rome,  in  the  time  referred  to, 
stood  at  the  acme  of  pagan  civilization.  This  same  Rome 
has  given  laws  of  a  high  character  to  all  subsequent 
civilizations.  But  in  that  Rome  the  sexual  relations 
were  unregulated  by  wholesome  laws,  and  were  prac- 
tically of  the  most  depraved  order.  The  wife  was 
the  chattel  of  her  husband,  the  instrument  of  his  caprice. 
Infanticide  was  a  general  and  unchecked  crime.  The 
sacredness  of  human  life  was  a  fact  unrecognized  and 
unregulative  in  the  public  thought.  Later  in  the  his- 
tory of  this  same  great  civilization,  in  the  Coliseum 
were  seats  for  sixty  thousand  spectators,  and  the  most 
fascinating  amusement  in  the  world's  capital,  the  fighting 
to  the  death  of  trained  gladiators,  or  the  casting  of 
slaves  and  of  helpless  women  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the 
arena,  filled  these  seats  with  multitudes  who  gaped  and 


198       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

gloated  over  scenes  of  human  butchery.  In  this  Rome 
eleemosynary  institutions,  such  as  homes  for  orphans, 
asylums  for  the  blind,  hospitals  for  the  sick  and  wounded, 
were  unknown. 

We  need  not  stop  to  picture  the  contrast  which  present 
Western  civilization  shows  as  against  those  ancient 
conditions.  Western  civilization,  as  we  have  much  occa- 
sion to  know,  is  in  many  capital  features  far  from  ideal. 
But,  as  compared  with  the  best  that  Rome  exhibited, 
the  present,  in  the  matter  of  all  the  humanities,  in 
the  sphere  of  all  social  and  moral  ideals,  seems  like 
a  far  step  toward  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  among  men.  The  fruits  of  the  kingdom,  such  as 
the  growth  of  justice  toward  all  men;  the  exaltation 
and  protection  of  womanhood;  legislation  to  guard  the 
sacred  rights  of  childhood;  the  vast  multiplication  of 
benevolent  endowments  for  the  unfortunate,  the  sick, 
and  the  poor;  universal  provision  for  the  education  of 
children;  increasing  legislation  in  the  interests  of 
labor;  the  humanizing  of  the  prison  systems ;  systematic 
mitigation  of  the  horrors  of  war  in  the  humane 
treatment  and  exchange  of  prisoners  ;  the  growing 
conviction  among  nations  of  the  necessity  of  abol- 
ishing war  and  of  settling  international  disputes  before 
some  common  tribunal,  such  as  the  Hague  Court — 
these,  and  nameless  other  beneficent  facts,  show  the 
advent,  the  marshaling,  and  the  progress  of  a  move- 
ment which  can  but  result  in  the  divine  conquest  of 
the  world. 

History  itself  furnishes  inspiration  for  the  most  op- 
timistic forecast  for  the  future  of  humanity.  The  very 
machinery    of    modern    life    reinforces    this    prophecy. 


THE  KINGDOM  AND  HUMANITY  199 

Every  great  and  labor-saving  invention  makes  a  call 
for  a  better  manhood.  Men  of  the  highest  type  of 
ability  and  integrity,  as  never  before,  are  called  for 
to  take  charge  and  direction  of  the  vast  business  and 
social  organisms  of  the  time.  The  very  necessities  of 
the  business  world  make  it  increasingly  imperative 
that  the  men  who  are  to  hold  the  representative  and 
responsible  positions  shall  be  men  not  only  of  high 
ability,  but  of  most  unquestioned  moral  integrity — the 
kind  of  man  called  for  in  the  Christian  ideal.  And 
so  in  the  evolution  of  the  business  and  industrial  life 
of  the  world  there  is  a  conspiracy  of  conditions  toward 
the  development  of  the  very  kind  of  character  through 
which  God  is  finally  to  establish  his  kingdom  among 
men. 

To  Christian  faith  there  is,  and  can  be,  no  valid  ground 
for  discouragement.  The  kingdom  is  of  God's  own 
purpose.  We  at  our  best,  probably,  have  but  a  poor 
measurement  of  God's  diagram  for  humanity.  We  are 
impatient.  We  see  great  wrongs  that  need  righting, 
darkness  that  needs  to  be  dissipated,  wanderers  that 
seem  dying  for  want  of  rescue,  and  we  are  either  per- 
turbed with  a  soul-consuming  desire  to  do  God's  work 
all  at  once  or  we  are  paralytic  from  despair.  God  is 
patient.  He  is  sure  of  his  goal.  There  is  not  a  single 
aimless  or  mistaken  line  in  his  large  diagram  of  human 
history.  He  will  make  no  failure.  He  is  not  miserly 
of  time.  With  him  a  thousand  years  are  as  a  single 
day.  There  is  much  to  prompt  the  belief  that,  as  meas- 
ured by  human  thinking,  God  works  slowly  toward 
his  divine  ends.  But  he  never  forgets,  he  never  turns 
aside,    he    will    work     continuously,    unfailingly,    until 


aoo       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

finally  the  earth  itself  shall  be  made  beauteous  as  the 

heritage  of  his  Son. 

"Red  of  the  dawn! 
Is  it  turning  a  fainter  red  ?    So  be  it,  but  when  shall  we  lay 
The  ghost  of  the  brute  that  is  walking  and  haunting  us  yet,  and  be 

free? 
In  a  hundred,  a  thousand  winters?    Ah!  what  shall  our  children  be, 
The  men  of  a  hundred  thousand,  a  million  summers  away?" 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE 


201 


It  was  reserved  for  Christianity  to  present  to  the  world  an  ideal 
character,  which,  through  all  the  changes  of  eighteen  centuries,  has 
filled  the  hearts  of  men  with  an  impassioned  love,  and  has  shown 
itself  capable  of  acting  on  all  ages,  nations,  temperaments,  condi- 
tions ;  has  not  only  been  the  highest  pattern  of  virtue,  but  the  highest 
incentive  to  its  practice. — Lecky. 

Is  it  a  mere  accident  or  an  evil  fate  that  just  at  this  moment  Chris- 
tendom should  have  been  called,  as  it  were,  into  the  very  presence  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  should  be  face  to  face  with  him  as  no  Christian 
century  has  been  since  the  first?  Is  it  for  nothing  that  this  Divine 
Apparition  should  have  come  forth  once  more  before  the  eyes  of 
men,  that  this  Voice  which  speaks  in  such  great  accents  of  the  infinite 
value  of  the  human  soul  should  have  been  heard  anew  by  human 
ears?  Is  it  for  nothing  that  just  when  this  great  temptation  has 
come  to  the  rich  and  powerful  peoples  to  treat  the  weaker  and  poorer 
as  mere  instruments  of  their  avarice  and  lust  and  pride,  the  solemn 
shadow  of  the  cross  should  fall  between,  and  just  when  the  pride  of 
earthly  empire  is  at  its  highest  the  vision  of  the  Divine  Kingdom 
should  turn  its  glories  dim  for  all  the  keener  eyes?  What  Christian 
man  at  least  can  believe  it?  To  me,  it  seems  wiser  to  say,  "Oh  the 
depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  How 
unsearchable  are  his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  finding  out!" — 
D.  S.  Cairns. 

The  very  God!  think,  Abib;  dost  thou  think? 
So  the  All-great  were  the  All-loving  too — 
So  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  voice, 
Saying,  "O  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here! 
Face  my  hands  fashioned,  see  it  in  myself! 
Thou  hast  no  power,  nor  canst  conceive  of  mine; 
But  love  I  gave  thee,  with  myself  to  love, 
And  thou  must  love  me  who  have  died  for  thee!" 

— Browning. 


CHAPTER  XII 
CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE 

The  Christ  of  the  Gospels,  viewed  in  the  broadest 
history  and  in  the  most  searching  light  of  to-day,  loses 
no  claim  to  supreme  divinity.  In  the  process  of  ages 
manners,  customs,  laws,  literatures,  change.  The  birth 
of  new  sciences,  the  evolution  of  new  laws,  have  given 
new  ideals  and  new  forms  to  entire  civilizations.  But 
Christ  is  not  only  the  contemporary  of  all  ages,  his 
ideals  are  immeasurably  in  advance  of  the  best  civiliza- 
tions, the  perfection  of  his  personality  is  beyond  that 
of  all  other  men,  and  the  most  sane  and  critical  thought 
is  giving  him  more  and  more  undisputed  place  as  the 
supreme  moral  sovereign  of  the  world. 

It  would  seem  that  there  ought  to  be  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  the  place  which  Christ  came  to  hold  in 
the  minds  of  the  New  Testament  writers.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  convictions 
which  these  writers  finally  held  concerning  him.  His 
advent  among  them  was  humble.  The  material  sur- 
roundings of  his  earthly  years  were  those  of  poverty, 
and  largely  of  obscurity.  He  stole  upon  their  imagina- 
tion by  no  parade  of  pomp  or  of  retinue,  by  none  of 
the  outward  trappings  of  power  or  of  authority.  But 
in  some  way  they  came  to  believe  in  him  as  the  Divine 
Son  of  God,  and  in  their  worship,  their  convictions, 
their  love,  they  ranked  him  as  the  rightful  Saviour, 
Judge,  and  Sovereign  of  the  world.  And  this  culminating 
conviction  was  no  passing  emotion  with  them.     In  its 

203 


204       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

support  they  heroically  endured  persecution  and  death 
itself. 

It  is  not  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  convictions 
and  conduct  of  these  disciples  were  inspired  by  any- 
thing less  than  a  great  reality.  Their  lives  were  too 
serious,  their  convictions  too  deep,  their  love  too  joyous, 
their  zeal  too  unremitting,  their  loyalty  too  heroic, 
to  permit  us  for  a  moment  to  believe  that  their  faith 
rested  upon  a  mere  impulse,  or  was  inspired  by  some 
passing  vision.  If  men  could  ever  be  assumed  to  be 
moved  by  profound  realities,  or  possessed  by  the  divinest 
truth,  these  were  the  men  who  in  the  Pentecostal  morn- 
ing of  the  Church  espoused  the  doctrines  and  linked 
themselves  with  the  destinies  of  Christianity.  The 
whole  life  of  early  Christianity,  from  its  baptismal 
anointing  in  the  upper  room  in  Jerusalem  to  the  time 
when  the  last  book  of  the  New  Testament  was  written, 
is  not  only  entitled  to,  but  asserts  for  itself,  a  most 
significant  place  among  the  epoch-making  forces  of 
history.  And  the  one  significant  thing,  the  one  wonder 
of  the  whole  movement,  is  that  Christ,  who  was  born 
in  a  manger,  who  was  a  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  who 
in  the  days  of  his  greatest  success  was  a  homeless  wan- 
derer, and  who  at  last  was  crucified  between  two  thieves, 
was  himself  the  source,  the  life,  and  the  abiding  inspi- 
ration of  this  history. 

The  public  life  of  Christ  at  longest  was  very  brief.  But 
there  was  something  about  him  so  unique,  so  compelling 
of  attention,  so  benign  in  ministry,  so  authoritative 
in  teaching,  so  lofty  in  claim,  so  spotless  in  character, 
as  very  early  to  impress  the  masses  and  the  author- 
ities that  a  most  unusual  personality  had  made  his  advent 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  205 

among  men.  By  the  authorities  of  the  temple  Jesus 
came  early  to  be  considered  as  a  radical,  as  one  whose 
mission  was  iconoclastic  in  its  relations  to  the  time- 
honored  traditions  and  usages  of  the  Judaic  religion. 
The  enmity  toward  him  of  scribes  and  rulers  became 
increasingly  intensified  until  at  last  it  settled  into  the 
bitter  and  determined  purpose  to  destroy  his  influence 
by  the  destruction  of  his  life.  If  his  history  were  to 
end  here,  it  were  no  common  thing  that  one  with  his 
known  lineage  and  environment  should  have  become  the 
subject  of  such  general  attention,  should  be  the  center 
of  so  much  adulation  and  of  so  much  contention.  He 
spent  the  closing  period  of  his  life  in  and  about  Jeru- 
salem, where  he  was  most  conspicuously  the  object 
of  both  popular  enthusiasm  and  of  official  enmity. 
That  his  disciples  should  worship  him  as  God's  Anointed 
Son,  that  the  multitudes  should  wait  with  enthusiasm 
upon  his  teaching,  that  the  rulers  should  plot  against 
his  life,  all  evidenced  his  extraordinary  character. 

Death  furnishes  the  most  decisive  test  as  to  the  abid- 
ing quality  of  one's  fame  and  influence.  It  usually 
ends  both.  The  scribes  and  the  rulers  reasoned  that 
if  they  could  put  an  end  to  Christ's  life  his  influence 
and  his  cause  would  die  with  him.  But  death,  so  far 
from  defeating  Christ,  seemed  to  be  but  a  necessary 
condition  of  making  more  secure  the  fame  of  his  name 
and  the  triumph  of  his  mission.  Within  six  weeks 
after  his  lifeless  body  had  been  laid  in  the  tomb  he 
more  than  ever  was  the  central  figure  in  the  thought 
of  all  Judea.  On  a  given  day  his  disciples,  filled  with 
a  great  inspiration,  stood  up  and  proclaimed  his  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,   and  preached  the  necessity  of 


2o6       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

repentance  and  faith  in  his  name  as  the  one  only  Saviour 
whom  God  has  given  to  men.  The  preaching  of  Pente- 
cost was  like  a  proclamation  from  heaven,  thousands, 
including  many  among  the  scribes  and  rulers,  also 
those  who  had  joined  in  the  very  clamor  for  Christ's 
crucifixion,  yielding  instantly  to  its  persuasion.  No 
contrast  could  be  greater  than  this :  on  one  day  a  scourged 
and  apparently  helpless  victim  perishing  on  the  cross 
of  a  malefactor ;  a  few  days  later,  the  capital  city  agitated 
to  its  rim  over  the  fact  that  Christ  was  alive  and  was 
openly  preached  as  the  God-given  Saviour  and  Judge 
of  the  world.. 

But  this  contrast,  wonderful  as  it  is,  is  but  a  typical 
incident  in  the  history  of  the  New  Testament  Christ. 
His  death,  so  far  from  ending  his  influence,  seems  to 
have  marked  the  fountain  source  of  some  of  the  most 
enduring  and  widespread  historic  movements  and  inspi- 
rations which  have  engrossed  the  thought  and  stirred 
the  activities  of  mankind.  The  institution  which  we 
know  as  the  Christian  Church  may  be  traced  for  its 
origin  to  the  open  door  of  Christ's  sepulcher.  Since 
that  date  nineteen  centuries  have  gone,  centuries  which 
have  marked  the  greatest  changes  and  the  most  mar- 
velous advances  in  human  history.  Not  a  single  nation 
in  Europe  which  was  alive  then  exists  now.  The  Amer- 
ican continent,  the  seat  of  present  great  empires,  was 
then  absolutely  unknown.  Not  one  of  the  great  inven- 
tions which  in  modern  days  have  multiplied  man's 
industrial  capacity  a  thousandfold  was  then  even  dreamed 
of.  The  great  sciences  which  have  given  man  a  new 
mastery  of  nature,  which  have  opened  upon  his  vision 
the   depths    of   immensity,    and    which   have    furnished 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  207 

his  thought  with  vast  new  philosophies  of  existence, 
were  all  unknown.  These  centuries  have  been  at  once 
the  most  destructive  and  the  most  creative  in  history. 
Under  their  crumbling  touch  the  mightiest  structures 
of  ancient  skill  have  perished.  In  their  creative  atmos- 
pheres olden  creeds,  philosophies,  and  religions  have 
been  superseded.  But  a  marvelous  thing  is  that,  amid 
all  the  destructive  and  constructive  forces  of  these 
centuries,  the  single  institution  of  the  Christian  Church, 
the  institution  founded  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  one  institu- 
tion which  bears  his  name,  and  which  is  without  sig- 
nificance save  as  it  promotes  his  mission  and  gospel 
among  men — this  institution  has  not  only  survived 
through  all  changes  and  through  all  centuries,  but  it 
has  spread  itself  mightily  over  the  known  earth;  and 
to-day  its  faith  is  more  buoyant,  its  forces  more  mighty, 
and  its  plans  for  world  conquest  more  confident  than 
ever  before. 

It  might  be  charged  that  the  Church  has  been  char- 
acterized by  all  the  defects  of  a  human  institution. 
Let  the  reply  be,  Yes.  In  its  nominal  ranks  there  have 
always  been  men,  some  of  them  powerful,  who  them- 
selves have  not  been  governed  by  the  spirit  of  its  Founder. 
Whole  sections  of  the  Church,  through  human  abuses, 
have  sometimes  been  corrupt.  All  this  must  be  sadly 
admitted.  But  it  remains  true  that,  taken  by  and 
large,  the  Church  has  existed  in  all  ages,  in  ages  of 
darkness  and  of  cruelty,  in  ages  of  ignorance  and  of 
superstition,  as  the  most  enlightening,  the  most  human- 
izing, the  most  inspiring  and  uplifting  agency  in  human 
history.  It  has  brought  civilization  to  the  barbarian, 
education    and    enlightenment    to    benighted    peoples, 


ao8      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

humane  ministries  to  helpless  age,  to  the  sick,  the  suffer- 
ing, the  poor;  it  has  created  around  womanhood  an 
atmosphere  of  sanctity,  instilled  into  civilization  a 
sacred  sense  of  human  life,  has  been  the  evangel  of 
righteousness  to  the  world,  and  has  transformed  and 
inspired  the  lives  of  multitudes,  otherwise  helpless 
and  hopeless,  by  bringing  to  them  a  divine,  a  sin-pardon- 
ing and  heaven-revealing  Saviour. 

The  Church  has  been  the  great  inspirer  and  educator 
of  humane  and  righteous  ideals.  It  may  be  claimed, 
and  truthfully,  that  very  many  benevolent  agencies 
are  at  work  in  human  society  which  are  not  directed 
or  controlled  by  the  Church.  But  it  may  be  equally 
asserted  that  these  very  agencies  were  born  in  an  atmos- 
phere which  itself  has  been  made  humane  and  benev- 
olent by  centuries  of  Christian  influence.  It  is  not 
my  purpose  to  enlarge  upon  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Church  speaks  for  itself.  Its  record  fur- 
nishes beyond  comparison  the  most  valuable  of  all 
histories  for  the  last  nineteen  hundred  years.  It  has  been 
the  fountain,  as  not  all  other  institutions  together,  of 
the  best  ideals  of  righteousness,  of  moral  education,  of 
spiritual  inspirations  and  hopes  for  humanity.  The  fact 
to  be  emphasized  is  that  this  institution  was  founded 
by  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  the  supreme  object  of  its  wor- 
ship and  its  service.  Its  sole  mission  is  to  build  up 
his  kingdom  and  to  magnify  his  name.  If  Christ  were 
God,  then  the  Church  has  an  adequate  cause  for  its 
being;  if  Christ  be  not  divine,  then  it  must  remain  a 
great  and  unexplained  enigma  of  history. 

It  is  necessary  to  recur  to  the  literature  of  the  New 
Testament  that  through  it  we  may  look  a  little  more 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  209 

closely  and  distinctively  upon  the  person  of  the  Christ. 
Within  a  period  beginning  about  twenty-five  years 
after  the  death  of  Christ,  and  thence  on  to  about  the 
close  of  the  first  century,  there  were  written  all  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament.  In  this  literature  there 
are  contained  the  germinal  statement  of  all  Christian 
teaching,  vivid  sketches  of  the  origin  and  early  life 
and  character  of  the  Church,  and,  central  to  all,  the 
portraiture  of  the  Christ,  a  character  so  unique,  so 
perfect,  so  divine  in  function  and  in  teaching,  as  to 
have  commanded  increasingly  the  study  and  the  admira- 
tion of  the  ages.  I  am  quite  aware  of  the  methods  by 
which  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  pictures  of  the 
Christ  presented  in  the  New  Testament  are  not  genuinely 
those  of  a  historic  person,  but  are  the  products  of  ideal- 
izing processes  by  which  a  truly  wonderful  man  had  in 
the  minds  of  his  followers  and  admirers  come  to  be 
transformed  and  apotheosized  into  the  semblance  of  a 
God.  It  is  my  conviction  that  the  grounds  for  such 
a  theory  have  been  amply  and  critically  searched,  and 
that  they  are  found,  in  the  light  of  most  competent 
scholarship,  to  be  utterly  unsustaining  of  the  theory 
itself.  On  general  principles,  it  is  unreasonable  to 
attribute  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  one  or 
all  of  them  together,  the  spiritual,  moral,  and  artistic 
insight  which  would  permit  them,  by  any  processes 
of  idealizing  whatsoever,  to  evolve  such  a  character 
as  that  which  is  presented  in  the  Christ  of  the  New 
Testament.  To  believe  such  a  theory  would  be  to 
credit  a  few  ordinary  men,  men  whose  limitations  are 
quite  well  ascertained,  with  the  creation  of  a  character 
such  as  not  all  the  art  and  literature  of  the  ages  com- 


2io      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

billed  have  been  able  to  produce.  The  matchless  picture 
of  Christ  is  in  the  New  Testament  because  the  matchless 
character  of  the  Christ  was  historic.  Christ  is  not  a 
literary  creation.  The  writers,  in  a  spirit  of  fidelity, 
in  the  mood  of  artless  truth,  wrote  in  the  records  the 
facts  about  Christ  as  they  were  known  not  only  by 
themselves,  but  by  a  multitude  of  witnesses.  There  is 
abundant  evidence  that  they  were  unequal  to  the  trans- 
lation into  their  literary  forms  of  Christ's  character 
and  teachings.  Christ  was  so  much  greater,  so  much 
more  wonderful,  than  themselves  as  always  to  transcend 
their  ability  to  give  him  adequate  portraiture.  These 
early  writers,  so  far  themselves  from  exhausting  the 
facts  which  they  record,  have  given  historic  data  of 
the  Christ  so  potential  in  quality  as  to  challenge  increas- 
ingly the  devout  and  critical  scholarship  of  all  sub- 
sequent ages.  The  most  exhaustive  study  of  the  Christ 
of  the  Gospels  shows  conclusively  that  so  far  from  the 
world's  having  outgrown  him,  he  stands  morally  and 
intellectually  in  advance  of  the  latest  age.  He  is  clearly, 
and  without  a  rival,  the  transcendent  spiritual  teacher 
and  moral  sovereign  of  the  twentieth  century. 

As  has  been  indicated,  the  modern  world  has  become 
wonderfully  rich  in  material  and  subjects  which  chal- 
lenge human  interest.  The  lands  and  seas  of  earth 
have  been  universally  explored.  The  sources  of  natural 
wealth  have  been  assiduously  sought  in  all  climes.  A 
world-wide  commerce  has  united  the  ends  of  the  earth 
in  the  bonds  of  a  common  interest.  Electricity  and  the 
printer's  art  now  furnish  to  a  world-democracy  of  readers 
the  daily  history  of  the  race.  Science  has  made  the 
modern  man  familiar  with  the  processes  of  nature  in 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  211 

earth  and  sea  and  sky.  The  modern  world  has  developed 
great  universities  and  training  schools  which,  command- 
ing the  best  appliances  of  learning,  are  sending  forth 
in  increasing  numbers  into  every  field  of  investigation 
trained  and  expert  seekers  after  truth.  This  is  a  day 
preeminently  of  peerless  research  and  of  scientific  anal- 
ysis. All  histories,  all  philosophies,  all  creeds  of  the 
past  are  subjected  with  inquisitorial  severity  to  the 
searchlight  and  dissection  of  most  expert  critical  methods. 
The  ghosts  of  superstition  and  demons  of  ignorance 
are  being  driven  from  their  ancient  haunts.  The  world 
in  all  fields  of  investigation,  in  discovery,  in  science, 
in  art,  in  invention,  in  commerce,  in  history,  in  literature 
and  philosophy,  has  in  this  modern  age  unfolded  a 
bewildering  wealth  of  subjects  which  summon  to  then- 
study  the  best  trained  and  the  most  thoughtful  minds 
of  the  race.  Of  the  modern  investigator  it  may  be 
said  that  his  ruling  passion  is  the  search  for  truth.  In 
any  field  where  demonstration  is  possible  he  takes 
nothing  for  granted.  He  approaches  history,  traditions, 
creeds,  demanding  that  they  uncover  to  him  their  naked 
facts — the  truths  on  which  they  rest.  Such  are  some 
of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  era  through  which 
the  world  is  now  passing. 

Is  there  any  room  in  such  a  world  as  this  for  the 
memory  of  a  Syrian  peasant,  born  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago  in  conditions  of  obscurity  and  poverty?  Is  there 
any  reason  why  the  character  or  the  mission  of  a  wander- 
ing and  homeless  Teacher,  himself  the  companion  of 
Galilean  fishermen,  should  have  any  place  in  the  crowded 
history,  or  why  he  should  receive  attention  from  the 
learned    teachers,   of   the   present?     If  there   were   not 


2i2       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

something  marvelously  unique  in  the  person  and  history 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  such  questions,  of  course,  would 
never  be  suggested.  The  world  of  modern  thought  is 
like  a  surging  sea  in  which  nothing  survives  save  that 
which  is  moored  to  living  interests.  But  the  most 
luminous  lightspot  in  this  surge  of  modern  thought, 
the  center  to  which  converge  the  most  serious  interests 
and  the  profoundest  thinking  of  our  times,  is  that 
which  is  marked  by  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  For 
some  reason  the  time-era  of  the  last  nineteen  centuries 
and  the  best  civilizations  of  the  world  not  only  bear 
his  name,  but  in  these  latest  decades  his  place  in  his- 
tory, his  character,  his  mission,  have  challenged  a 
more  critical  examination,  have  stirred  more  profound 
thought,  have  inspired  the  writing  of  more  books, 
than  any  other  single  subject  which  has  appealed  to 
the  human  mind. 

The  discussion  of  Christ  and  his  mission  has  not 
been  of  a  neutral,  of  a  one-sided,  character.  It  has 
been  conducted  from  all  sources  and  from  all  stand- 
points of  view.  While  his  admirers,  worshipers,  and 
defenders  have  been  an  ever-increasing  host,  the  skeptic 
and  the  hostile  student,  armed  with  the  keenest  crit- 
icism, have  wrought  with  all  human  skill  to  destroy 
his  claims  to  divinity.  Nothing  is  more  interesting  or 
more  reassuring  than  to  observe  the  final  effect  of  all 
hostile  criticism  upon  Christ's  historic  standing.  Men 
have  arisen  to  fame  because  of  their  brilliant  onsets 
against  the  divinity  of  his  character.  In  recent  times, 
Strauss,  Baur,  Renan,  and  many  others,  a  whole  galaxy 
of  brilliant  scholars,  have  elaborated  theories  and  special 
criticism  which  for  the  time  have  seemed  to  deal  stag- 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  213 

gering,  if  not  fatal,  blows  against  the  cherished  views 
of  Christianity  concerning  its  Founder. 

For  brief  periods,  here  and  there,  the  destructive 
critic  has  seemed  to  hold  his  place  strongly  in  the  field. 
But,  in  every  case,  it  has  only  required  time  for  the 
Christian  scholar  to  investigate  when  the  grounds  have 
been  cleared  and  the  criticisms  demolished.  Since  the 
day  when  the  Jewish  mob  assaulted  Pilate's  judgment- 
seat  the  clamor  for  the  destruction  of  Christ  has  never 
ceased.  In  every  age  somebody  has  prepared  a  costly 
tomb  for  his  final  repose.  But  from  every  Calvary 
and  every  sepulcher  prepared  by  his  foes  Christ  has 
emerged  with  enriched  laurels  and  with  a  more  fully 
acknowledged  sovereignty.  The  clear,  plain  fact  is  that 
the  critics  have  been  able  to  work  no  impairment  to  his 
highest  claims,  to  effect  no  check  upon  his  growing  fame. 
At  the  worst,  they  have  been  but  unwilling  contributors 
to  the  enlargement  of  his  place  in  the  knowledge,  affec- 
tions, and  worship  of  mankind.  The  real  place  which  Christ 
now  holds  in  the  world's  thought  admits  of  no  comparison. 
If  in  this  latest  generation  there  could  be  gathered  a  con- 
gress of  the  world's  elect  souls,  including  kings,  statesmen, 
ecclesiastics,  scholars,  scientists,  great  captains  of  mer- 
chandise and  of  industry,  the  advent  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
presence  of  such  a  company  would  morally  compel  their 
falling  upon  their  faces  in  worship  at  his  feet.  There 
would  be  no  man  among  them  all  that  could  claim  any 
measure  of  equality  with  him.  There  is  no  character  in 
all  human  history  which  approaches  him  either  in  fame 
or  influence.  In  moral  excellence  he  eclipses  all  the 
saints,  in  wisdom  all  the  philosophers.  His  spiritual 
empire  in  the  world  is  without  boundaries. 


2i4       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

A  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  Christ  has  steadily  out- 
grown the  best  conceptions  of  his  own  followers.  The 
Church  is  in  possession  to-day  of  a  larger  and  richer 
Christ  than  was  apprehended  by  the  men  of  the  New 
Testament.  This  is  not  because  he  was  not  just  as 
divine  then  as  now,  but  because  a  larger  light  rests  upon 
his  personality.  Devout  Christian  thought  has  a  larger 
translation  of  his  character  than  was  even  possible  to 
the  apostolic  age.  This  process  will  continue.  The 
Christ  of  the  thirtieth  century  will  be  a  far  richer  rev- 
elation to  the  world  than  is  the  Christ  of  to-day.  All 
this  must  be  explained  by  the  fact  of  a  continuous 
growth  of  insight,  of  spiritual  apprehension  in  the  life 
and  mind  of  the  Church. 

How  is  the  advent  of  such  a  character  into  history 
to  be  accounted  for?  There  is  no  law  of  evolution 
that  explains  him.  If  he  were  merely  human  there 
should  be  some  antecedent  conditions  which  would 
unfold  to  us  the  secret  of  his  unique  and  matchless 
character.  These  conditions  do  not  exist.  There  ap- 
pears but  one  true  and  sufficient  explanation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  this  is  the  one  repeatedly  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament.  He  came  forth  direct  from  God.  His 
genealogy  is  not  to  be  sought  in  any  philosophy  of 
evolution.  He  was  not  a  child  of  evolution.  He  is  the 
Lord  of  Life  who  himself  has  directed  the  very  processes 
of  evolution.  By  the  might  of  his  own  creative  word 
the  worlds  themselves  were  formed.  No  less  a  hypoth- 
esis is  at  all  adequate  to  deal  with  his  history.  The 
critics  fail  to  destroy  him,  or  even  to  impair  his  influence ; 
he  transcends  the  best  ideals  of  his  own  worshipers; 
his  kingdom  of  truth  steadily  advances  against  all  the 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  215 

powers  of  darkness,  superstition,  and  error;  and  all  this 
because  he  is  the  Divine  Son  whose  mission  it  is  to 
translate  the  world  into  God's  kingdom.  His  rule  will 
not  lessen,  but,  like  the  stone  in  the  prophet's  vision, 
it  will  grow  till  it  shall  fill  the  whole  earth.  Wherefore 
God  shall  also  highly  exalt  him,  and  give  him  a  name 
which  is  above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus 
every  knee  shall  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things 
in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth;  and  every  tongue 
shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory 
of  God  the  Father. 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE 

(Continued) 


217 


"Step  by  step  since  time  began 
We  see  the  steady  gain  of  man; 
For  still  the  new  transcends  the  old, 
In  signs  and  tokens  manifold; 
Slaves  rise  up  men;  the  olive  waves 
With  roots  deep  set  in  battle  graves." 

The  crying  need  of  our  own  age  in  the  industrial  sphere  is  the 
deepening  and  diffusion  of  the  sense  of  the  Common  Good.  ...  If 
it  were  possible  to  imbue  capitalist  and  laboring  class  alike  with  this 
motive,  the  whole  sordid  struggle  would  change  its  character,  a  pro- 
gressive concordat  between  them  would  be  established,  and  society 
would  enter  on  a  new  and  nobler  epoch.  Suppose  that  the  capitalist 
could  be  brought  to  view  his  work  as  a  social  function,  and  his  gains 
as  a  trust  bestowed  upon  him  for  the  public  good.  Suppose  that  the 
laborer  viewed  his  work  as  public  service,  and  were  able  to  look  upon 
his  wages  as  controlled  in  amount  by  the  same  consideration  of  pub- 
lic advantage;  suppose  that  devotion  to  the  common  weal  became  a 
passion  in  the  sphere  of  economic  life,  as  it  has  often  been  historically 
under  militarism,  would  not  the  whole  situation  be  radically  changed  ? 
The  sting  would  be  taken  out  of  labor  troubles,  and  the  poison  out  of 
the  blood  of  the  social  organism.  Social  inequalities  would  remain, 
but  there  would  be  reason  in  them  which  could  be  recognized  by  the 
reason  of  the  individual. — D.  S.  Cairns. 

This  is  the  gospel  of  labor — ring  it,  ye  bells  of  the  kirk — 

The  Lord  of  Love  came  down  from  above,  to  live  with  the  men  who 

work. 
This  is  the  rose  that  he  planted,  here  in  the  thorn-cursed  soil — 
Heaven  is  blest  with  perfect  rest,  but  the  blessing  of  earth  is  toil. 

— Henry  van  Dyke. 


218 


CHAPTER   XIII 
CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  (Continued) 

There  is  one  great  and  conclusive  argument  for  the 
divine  mission  of  Jesus  Christ  which,  I  am  impressed, 
has  not  been  too  freely  used  and  accredited  in  the  general 
discussions  of  his  history.  This  is  the  argument  fur- 
nished from  the  experimental  faith  and  life  of  the  Church. 
Christ  not  only  appeared  as  a  moral  teacher,  but  he 
came  to  fulfill  the  functions  of  a  Redeemer  and  Saviour 
in  behalf  of  a  sinful  human  race.  It  was  predicted 
that  his  name  should  be  called  "Jesus"  because  he 
would  save  his  people  from  their  sins.  His  gospel  pro- 
claims that  through  his  cross  he  has  wrought  redemption 
and  salvation  for  sinners.  He  comes  to  man  as  a  Divine 
Saviour.  It  is  his  office  to  pardon  sins,  to  cancel  guilt, 
and  to  impart  divine  peace  to  sin-smitten,  penitent 
souls.  He  himself  promised  the  abiding  companionship 
of  a  Divine  Comforter  to  his  faithful  followers.  He 
came  to  impart  both  the  fact  and  the  joy  of  Sonship 
in  God's  family  to  as  many  as  should  believe  on  his  name. 

There  is  in  all  this  the  suggestion  of  some  great  divine 
inworking  in  the  human  soul.  If  Christ  really  fulfills 
these  promises  in  the  lives  of  men  there  can  be  nothing 
fictitious  or  neutral  in  the  results.  The  soul  in  which 
he  works  this  change  of  forgiveness  and  to  whom  is 
imparted  the  gift  and  sense  of  Sonship  has  really  come 
into  a  new  life,  into  a  new  and  divine  world.  It  is 
reasonable  that  this  change  should  be  a  matter  of  pro- 
found experience.     The  sun  rising  out  of  the  night  and 

219 


220       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

flooding  the  world  with  its  light  does  not  work  a  greater 
apparent  change  upon  the  face  of  nature  than  really 
takes  place  in  the  human  soul  in  which  Christ  has  wrought 
the  forgiveness  of  sin,  and  to  whom  is  imparted  the 
joyful  sense  of  Sonship  in  God's  household. 

The  fact  of  this  divine  inworking  is  not  left  to  the 
mere  conjecture  of  the  individual.  The  promise  is 
definite  that  the  Spirit — the  Divine  Comforter — shall 
himself  bear  witness  with  our  spirits  that  we  are  born 
of  God.  The  evidence  of  the  pardoned  life  through 
Jesus  Christ  is  experimental.  The  methods  and  impres- 
sions of  the  saving  Spirit  may  be  as  various  as  human 
individuality.  But  it  may  be  accepted  as  a  universal 
fact  that  the  pardoned  soul  lives  in  possession  of  a 
divine  peace — a  peace  not  born  of  earth.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  demonstrably  experimental.  It  utters 
its  testimony  in  the  soul  of  its  recipient  not  less  cer- 
tainly than  does  the  grateful  transition  from  winter  to 
springtime  report  itself  to  the  senses. 

And  so,  through  all  its  history,  the  Church  of  Christ 
has  been  a  witnessing  Church.  Out  of  its  living  experi- 
ences of  salvation  have  been  born  the  loftiest  hymns 
of  gratitude.  Spiritual  literatures,  full  of  inspiration 
and  sweetness,  pure  as  waters  from  the  river  of  life, 
have  in  all  ages  fairly  sung  themselves  from  out  the 
hearts  of  saints  whose  conscious  communion  with  Jesus 
Christ  has  filled  them  with  a  joy  like  that  of  heaven. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  assert,  and  it  would  not  be  true, 
that  the  usual  state  of  Christian  experience  is  one  of 
rapture.  It  is  true  that  to  multitudes  in  their  clear 
moods  of  faith  in  Christ,  in  their  conscious  personal 
relation  to  him,  there  have  come  spiritual  experiences 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  22i 

as  uplifting  and  memorable  as  a  transfiguration.  Such 
experiences  are  valuable  as  giving  altitude  and  vision 
to  the  soul.  But  to  the  great  mass  of  Christian  dis- 
ciples the  rapturous  experience  is  exceptional.  In  all, 
however,  the  graces  and  fruits  of  the  Spirit  grow  in 
the  measure  of  their  faith  and  obedience  toward  Christ, 
and  these  by  a  consciousness  of  the  highest  value  are 
certain  of  the  faith  and  the  hope  that  is  within 
them. 

In  all  the  Christian  centuries  an  innumerable  com- 
pany of  sane,  thoughtful,  and  calm  people  have  been 
the  most  firm  witnesses  to  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
They  have  been  so  confident  of  their  personal  salva- 
tion in  Jesus  Christ  that  sooner  than  to  renounce  their 
faith  and  their  hopes  they  would  prefer  the  fate  of 
martyrdom.  The  teachers  of  Christianity,  the  preachers 
of  the  gospel,  have  in  all  ages  been  among  the  foremost 
of  their  times  in  intelligence  and  in  character.  These 
have  not  only  had  their  own  cherished  Christian  experi- 
ences, but  they  have  been  the  expounders  of  the  faith, 
the  men  who  have  given  rational  and  logical  expression 
to  the  doctrines  of  Christian  truth.  It  would  be  wonder- 
ful indeed  if  all  the  generations  of  Christian  teachers 
and  preachers,  many  of  whom  have  been  eminent  as 
saints,  had  given  their  thought,  their  learning,  their 
energies  only  to  a  service  of  fables!  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  no  testimony  appealing  to  human  judgment  is 
more  worthy  of  credence  than  that  which  has  been 
furnished  for  the  truth  of  Christianity  by  such  men. 
The  living  testimony  of  untold  thousands  to  their  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  steady,  persistent  utterance 
of  this  testimony  to  the  world  through  sixty  genera- 


222       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

tions,  would  surely  seem  valuable  evidence  for  the 
divinity  of  the  Christian  religion. 

The  radical  transformation  of  character  which  has 
been  in  innumerable  cases  effected  in  the  name  of  Christ 
is  a  phenomenon  which  cannot  be  rationally  ignored. 
Where  one's  life  from  inheritance  and  education  has 
been  habitually  gentle  and  refined  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  any  radical  change  in  outward  manner  would  ensue 
from  the  entrance  of  such  upon  the  Christian  life.  But 
the  demonstrated  capacity  of  the  Christian  religion  to 
transform  apparently  most  helpless  sinners  into  saints 
has  in  all  ages  been  one  of  its  glories.  When  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  enters  into  a  man  it  carries  with  it  the  kind 
of  power  which  makes  the  vile  pure,  the  liar  truthful, 
the  drunken  sober,  the  cruel  kind,  the  brutal  gentle, 
and  which  gives  to  the  very  slaves  of  evil  habits  the 
freedom  and  beauty  of  a  redeemed  manhood. 

There  could  be  imposed  upon  no  reformatory  claim 
a  severer  test  than  that  it  be  required  radically  to  change 
the  confirmed  habits  of  an  evil  life,  and  to  set  the  will 
and  passion  of  such  a  life  in  the  direction  of  purity  and 
righteousness.  Yet  this  is  a  test  to  which  the  Christian 
religion  fearlessly  submits  itself,  and  never,  when  fairly 
made,  with  the  result  of  failure.  A  sudden  and  radical 
change  in  the  convictions  and  habits  of  a  strong  char- 
acter is  one  of  the  last  things  to  be  philosophically 
expected.  Yet,  Christianity  has  wrought  this  kind  of 
change  in  instances  without  number. 

A  conspicuous  and  familiar  example  is  Saint  Paul. 
It  has  been  attempted  to  show  that  Paul  was  a  sort  of 
visionary  character,  possibly  a  victim  of  epilepsy,  and, 
therefore,  an  unreliable  witness  in  his  testimony  to  the 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  223 

power  of  Christ  over  his  own  life.  This  assumption 
will  not  bear  examination.  It  is  too  absurd  to  chal- 
lenge attention,  much  less  respect.  He  was  a  man  of 
imperial  intellect,  while  in  moral  courage  and  achieve- 
ment he  stands  well-nigh  peerless.  It  is  true  he  had 
a  warm  heart,  an  emotional  nature,  but  he  was  as  sane 
a  man  as  ever  lived.  His  testimony  to  Christ  admits 
of  no  understanding  save  on  the  basis  of  his  personal 
experience.  His  experience  can  be  accounted  for  only 
on  the  ground  of  its  absolute  genuineness.  It  was  an 
experience  which  changed  suddenly,  radically,  utterly, 
the  purposes,  the  emotions,  the  conduct  of  one  of  the 
most  invincible  of  men.  This  is  a  history  which  cannot 
be  explained  by  any  trivial  philosophy.  Saint  Paul 
himself  accounts  for  it  solely  from  the  fact  that  he 
had  received  a  direct  revelation  from  the  risen  and 
glorified  Christ.  And  this  experience  was  no  passing 
impulse  in  his  life.  From  the  moment  of  his  conversion 
he  was  supremely  possessed  by  new  motives  and  con- 
victions. Under  their  sway  and  inspiration  he  gave 
himself  to  a  self-sacrificing  and  unremitting  Christian 
service  which  has  challenged  the  wonder  and  admira- 
tion of  the  centuries.  In  obedience  to  his  convictions 
he  finally  went  to  heroic  martyrdom.  Surely,  Saint 
Paul's  faith  must  have  been  based  upon  some  great 
reality.  Men  of  the  stamp  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  do  not 
pay  such  cost  of  service,  such  tribute  of  sacrifice  and 
suffering,  and  finally  martyrdom  itself,  in  response  to 
the  mere  promptings  of  some  baseless  dream. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-two  Augustine  had  run  the  entire 
gamut  of  sinful  living.  A  young  man,  educated,  and 
of  unusually  strong  and  brilliant  intellect,   he  seemed 


224       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

a  confirmed  debauchee.  With  such  a  history  and  char- 
acter, his  eye  one  day  fell  upon  the  following  passage 
from  Saint  Paul's  Epistles:  "Let  us  walk  honestly,  as 
in  the  day;  not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness.  .  .  .  Put  ye 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for 
the  flesh,  to  fulfill  the  lusts  thereof."  This  passage 
went  like  a  dart  through  his  soul.  In  that  very  hour 
he  was  vividly  converted  and  became  a  disciple  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Afterward  a  bishop  in  the  Church,  he  is  known 
in  history  as  the  most  influential  theologian  in  the 
Christian  centuries,  giving  a  form  to  theology  which 
was  dominant  and  well-nigh  universally  accepted  for 
fifteen  hundred  years.  But  from  the  hour  of  his  con- 
version to  the  day  of  his  death  he  walked  worthy  of 
his  high  calling. 

Transformations  thus  wrought  in  the  characters  and 
lives  of  eminent  men  like  Saint  Paul  and  Saint  Augustine 
are  of  the  greatest  significance,  but  really  no  more  so 
than  the  changes  wrought  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
in  the  characters  of  apparently  the  most  hopeless  and 
abandoned  sinners.  The  indubitable  historic  fact  is  that 
multitudes  of  sinners,  vile  and  desperate  sinners,  have 
been  wondrously  redeemed  and  saved  through  his  name. 

Jerry  McAuley  spent  his  later  years  living  the  life 
of  a  saint,  and  died  at  last  in  sublime  assurance  of  heaven. 
This  is  one  of  his  characteristic  testimonies  in  the  Water 
Street  Mission:  "I  was  a  thief,  an  outcast,  yes,  a  regular 
bum;  but  I  gave  my  heart  to  God,  and  he  saved  me 
from  whisky,  and  tobacco,  and  everything  that's  wicked 
and  bad.  I  used  to  be  one  of  the  worst  drunkards  in 
the  Fourth  Ward,  but  Jesus  came  into  my  heart,  and  took 
the  whole  thing  out  of  me,  and  I  don't  want  it  any  more." 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  225 

Samuel  H.  Hadley,  for  nearly  twenty  years  Jerry 
McAuley's  successor  as  superintendent  of  the  Water 
Street  Mission,  a  few  years  ago  went  out  of  life  bearing 
with  him  the  love  and  respect  of  the  best  Christian 
citizens  of  New  York.  Yet  this  man  had  gone  down  to 
the  most  degrading  depths  of  sin.  He  was  thought  to 
be  hopeless;  he  was  hopeless  of  himself.  But  one  night 
in  the  mission,  while  kneeling  in  prayer,  he  felt  that 
Christ  with  all  his  love  and  power  had  come  into  his 
life.  He  says:  "From  that  moment  until  now  I  have 
never  wanted  a  drink  of  whisky,  and  have  never  seen 
money  enough  to  make  me  take  one.  The  precious 
touch  of  Jesus's  cleansing  blood  in  my  soul  took  from 
my  stomach,  my  brain,  my  blood,  and  my  imagination 
the  hell-born  desire  for  whisky.  .  .  .  One  other  thing 
has  never  ceased  to  be  a  wonder:  I  was  so  addicted  to 
profanity  that  I  would  swear  in  my  sleep.  I  could 
not  speak  ten  consecutive  words  without  an  oath.  The 
form  or  thought  of  an  oath  has  never  presented  itself 
to  me  since.  Bless  his  dear  name  forever.  ...  A  few 
weeks  afterward  the  dear  Lord  showed  me  that  I  was 
leaning  on  tobacco,  and  that  I  had  better  lean  entirely 
on  him.  I  threw  my  plug  away  one  night  down  the 
aisle  of  the  mission,  and  the  desire  was  removed.  .  .  .  The 
wonderful  mystery  of  God's  love  for  sinners  never  ceased 
to  excite  the  most  lively  emotions  in  my  breast,  and 
has  never  become  an  old  story.  How  the  precious,  pure, 
and  spotless  Saviour  could  stoop  down  and  bear  away 
my  drunkenness  and  delirium  tremens,  to  this  day  fills 
my  soul  with  gratitude.  .  .  .  Surely,  if  any  man  be  in 
Jesus  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature." 

Cases   like   those   of   McAuley   and   Hadley   are   too 


226      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

numerous  to  escape  critical  attention,  too  well  attested 
to  admit  of  rational  doubt.  The  late  Professor  James, 
of  Harvard  University,  in  his  stout  volume  entitled 
Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  takes  account  of  a 
large  number  of  striking  conversions.  He  has  no  pa- 
tience with  any  theories  that  would  dispose  of  such 
experiences  as  a  mere  result  of  impulse  or  of  temporary 
excitement.  He  believes  that  these  experiences  are  not 
only  most  genuine,  but  that  they  often  result  in  the 
radical  betterment  of  character.  He  was  not  a  man 
of  orthodox  Christian  faith,  but  he  admitted  that  these 
religious  uplifts  only  occur  when  the  human  soul  is 
looking  up  to  some  power  higher  than  its  own. 

The  phenomena  of  religious  conversion  and  of  con- 
sequent transformation  of  character  are,  in  view  of 
their  frequency  and  importance,  as  certainly  entitled  to 
scientific  and  philosophic  consideration  as  are  any  other 
phenomena  of  which  we  know.  Mr.  Harold  Begbie,  in 
his  remarkable  book,  Twice  Born  Men,  has,  as  a  matter 
of  philosophical  study  from  the  fruits  of  mission  work 
in  a  single  and  comparatively  small  section  of  London, 
selected  a  few  characters  which  this  work  has  lifted 
from  the  lowest  and  most  dissolute  depths  of  submerged 
life.  These  characters,  by  some  power  seemingly  not 
less  divine  than  miraculous,  have  been  so  transformed 
in  taste,  in  habit,  in  action,  in  their  outward  garb, 
as  to  walk  and  shine  in  the  very  neighborhoods  of  their 
former  evil  haunts  like  saints. 

If  the  philosophic  critic  will  once  divest  himself  of 
his  antireligious  bias;  if  he  will  dismiss  all  temptation 
to  pass  them  by  simply  because  they  come  under  the 
class  of  religious  experiences,  he  will  find  in  these  cases 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  227 

of  conversion  as  interesting  phenomena  as  ever  chal- 
lenged his  critical  thought.  And,  let  it  be  fully  conceded, 
it  is  highly  legitimate  that  all  these  phenomena  should 
be  subjected  to  the  test  of  closest  psychological  scrutiny. 
The  field  in  which  these  religious  experiences  and  trans- 
formations occur  is  certainly  one  which  it  is  the  function 
of  psychological  science  to  explore.  But  when  psy- 
chology has  done  its  best  to  search  and  to  analyze  these 
experiences  it  can  do  no  more  than  to  report  processes. 
It  has  no  faculty  for  discovering  or  revealing  the  sufficient 
cause  to  which  the  marvels  of  result  are  to  be  traced. 
It  might  be  well  to  listen  to  the  testimony  of  the  sub- 
jects themselves  of  these  experiences.  With  remarkable 
unanimity  and  emphasis  they  ascribe  the  beneficent 
changes  that  have  come  into  their  lives  to  the  wonder- 
working grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  this  alone.  In 
their  new-found  joy  they  say : 

"I  have  seen  the  face  of  Jesus: 
Tell  me  not  of  aught  beside. 
I  have  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus: 
All  my  soul  is  satisfied." 

In  the  strength  of  companionship  with  him  multitudes 
whom  sin  has  smitten  into  ruin  and  helplessness  have 
been  morally  resurrected,  and  have  gone  forth  into 
a  new  life,  emancipated  from  evil  habit  and  temptation, 
cleansed  at  the  very  fountains  of  their  thought. 

Surely,  if  God  has  instituted  a  method  of  saving 
sinners,  the  severest  test  of  this  method  would  be  fur- 
nished in  cases  such  as  here  presented.  But  when  fairly 
tried  on  its  own  conditions  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ 
has  been  fully  equal  to  the  needs,  however  extreme 
the  case.     Among  all  other  remedial  agencies  known  to 


228       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

men,  is  there  any  that  has  shown  itself  equal  to  working 
such  miracles  of  moral  healing?  Not  one.  Not  all 
philosophy,  science,  and  human  skill  combined  have 
been  able  to  save  and  transform  the  moral  outcast. 
But  the  gospel  of  Jesus  has  been  doing  this  humanly 
impossible  thing  all  through  its  history.  And  this  is 
what  Christ  himself  declared:  "The  Son  of  man  came 
into  this  world  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 
But  for  the  purposes  of  testimony  we  need  not  confine 
our  survey  of  the  saving  power  of  Christ  to  what  it  may 
do  for  extreme  cases  of  those  far  gone  in  vicious  living. 
If  we  would  rightly  value  Christ's  gracious  mission  we 
must  study  its  fruits  as  seen  in  the  saner  and  sweeter 
atmospheres  of  human  society.  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
and  obedience  to  his  gospel  have  developed  the  finest 
manhood  and  womanhood  of  the  world.  The  most 
beautiful,  pure,  and  intelligent  home-life  of  earth  is 
found  in  the  Christian  community.  Christianity  has  not 
only  given  birth  to  the  most  perfect  systems  of  educa- 
tion, but  has  furnished  the  highest  ideals  for  the  develop- 
ment and  training  of  character.  Faith  in  and  fellowship 
with  the  Christ  of  the  New  Testament  have  brought 
to  the  lives  of  individuals  the  divinest  values.  Under 
the  inspiring  ideals  of  the  gospel  men  have  learned  to 
love  righteousness  and  to  hate  meanness,  have  been 
kept  pure  and  sweet  in  speech,  in  imagination,  in  habit. 
The  gospel  has  given  sanctity  to  domestic  love,  and 
children  have  been  born  into  homes  whose  moral  atmos- 
pheres are  sweetened  as  with  the  very  breath  of  heaven. 
The  gospel  of  Jesus  has  brought  divinest  consolation  in 
hours  of  bereavement,  has  furnished  sustaining  grace 
on  beds  of  pain,  has  been  a  sure  staff  of  support  when 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  aag 

earthly  fortunes  have  failed.  It  furnishes  to  old  age  the 
vision  and  cheer  of  heavenly  hope,  and  at  the  very 
last  enables  the  saint  to  pillow  his  head  in  peace  and 
to  go  out  of  this  life  in  the  transports  of  a  victorious  faith. 

Surely,  if  we  are  to  judge  Jesus  Christ  in  the  light 
of  his  exalted  character,  and  by  the  fruits  of  his  gospel, 
we  can  give  him  no  less  a  rank  than  that  which  is  ascribed 
to  him  in  the  New  Testament.  He  came  forth  from 
heaven  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  He  is  the  one 
whom  God  raised  from  the  dead  and  hath  set  at  his 
own  right  hand  in  heavenly  places. 

There  are  some  questions  of  first  importance:  Is 
Christianity  practicable?  Can  the  example  and  teaching 
of  Christ  be  made  the  basis  for  the  government  of  human 
society?  If  we  were  forced  to  give  a  negative  answer 
to  these  questions  it  would  be  to  admit  that  Chris- 
tianity in  its  final  promise  is  a  failure,  that  Christ  is 
unequal  to  the  Kingship  of  the  world. 

The  fundamental  facts  underlying  the  governmental 
problem  of  Christianity  are  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  obligations  growing  out 
of  these  facts  are  voiced  in  two  great  commandments: 
first,  that  which  enjoins  supreme  love  to  God;  second, 
the  requirement  that  a  man  shall  love  his  neighbor 
as  himself.  The  logic  of  the  relations  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. If  God  is  our  Father,  then  it  is  a  supreme  duty 
to  love  him,  to  obey  him,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  our- 
selves to  become  like  him.  If  all  men  are  our  brothers, 
then  all  men  without  exception  have  a  claim  upon  our 
love  and  upon  our  service. 

If  now  we  are  careful  to  survey  the  social  ills  which 
afflict  society,  the  unscrupulous  competition  and  flagrant 


230      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

dishonesty  which  too  often  appear  in  the  world  of  trade, 
the  wide  and  seemingly  irrepressible  conflicts  which 
appear  between  labor  and  capital,  the  gross  corruptions 
in  politics,  corruptions  which  darken  the  very  annals 
of  legislation,  the  caste  feeling  which  separates  race 
from  race  and  class  from  class — we  shall  find  that  every 
one  of  these  evils  persists  because  the  facts  of  God's 
Fatherhood  and  of  human  brotherhood  are  not  prac- 
tically accepted  and  acted  upon  in  human  society.  It 
is  a  fundamental  aim  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  create 
in  the  hearts  of  individuals  and  in  society  those  motives 
and  dispositions  which  will  make  impossible  the  con- 
tinuance of  these  evils. 

Is  a  practical  Christian  rule  making  headway  in  the 
earth?  For  answer,  take  an  inventory  of  the  humanities 
that  inhere  in  modern  civilization.  Measure  the  popular 
and  growing  demand  for  righteousness  in  trade,  in 
municipal  government,  in  legislation,  and  in  international 
relations.  Note  the  indignant  and  sustained  protest  of 
society  against  such  iniquities  as  the  white-slave  traffic 
and  the  gross  agencies  of  intemperance.  Count  the 
splendid  institutions  of  charity  which  shine  as  very 
gems  in  the  crown  of  modern  civilization.  Study  the 
spirit,  the  scope  and  success  of  modern  missionary 
movements.  In  obedience  to  the  final  command  of 
Christ  the  universal  Church  has  within  the  last  century 
organized  missionary  agencies  which  are  planting  the 
schools  and  propaganda  of  Christianity  in  all  the  centers 
of  paganism.  The  success  of  missionary  enterprises  is 
such  as  to  give  promise  of  a  day  not  far  distant  when 
whole  nations  now  lying  in  heathendom  shall  be  Christian. 
These,  and  innumerable  kindred  agencies  of  good,  are 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  a3i 

all  the  fruitage  of  Christianity,  and  illustrate  the  firm 
and  increasing  hold  which  Christ  has  upon  civilization. 
Indeed,  the  moral  and  humane  advances  of  the  best 
civilizations  of  to-day  over  the  best  paganisms  of  the 
past  are  but  an  index  of  the  increasing  and  beneficent 
rule  which  Christianity  is  surely  and  widely  asserting  in 
the  movements  of  history. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  emphasized  the  rela- 
tions of  service  to  the  kingdom.  I  recur  to  the  same 
thought  here  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the  actual 
place  which  the  example  and  teaching  of  Christ  have 
given  to  service  in  modern  ideals.  Service  is  the  one 
word  which,  more  than  any  other,  expresses  the  embodi- 
ment in  action  of  the  spirit  of  the  kingdom.  Christ 
himself  illustrates  the  divine  function  of  service  by  a 
wonderful  object  lesson.  He  was  alone  with  his  dis- 
ciples in  a  Jerusalem  room.  These  disciples  had  been 
petulantly  striving  among  themselves  as  to  which  should 
have  the  more  honorable  rank  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 
They  were  full  of  a  carnal  ambition  each  to  hold  a  place 
by  which  he  should  outrank  his  fellow,  so  little  did  they 
understand  the  true  spirit  of  their  Master's  kingdom. 
The  record  tells  us  that  Jesus,  in  the  great  conscious- 
ness of  his  relationship  to  God,  in  the  fact  that  the 
Father  had  given  all  things  into  his  hands,  and  that 
he  was  come  out  from  God  and  was  about  to  go  back 
to  God,  arose  from  the  common  meal  in  which  they 
had  joined,  and  taking  up  a  towel  and  pouring  water 
into  a  basin  proceeded  to  wash  and  to  wipe  the  feet 
of  his  disciples.  There  is  no  parallel  to  this  in  history. 
Here  is  a  divine  Being,  just  come  forth  from  God  and 
about  to  return  to  God,  with  all  things — all  power — 


232      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

in  his  hands,  immeasurably  more  royal  than  any  king, 
and  yet  that  he  might  illustrate  to  his  disciples  the 
divinest  law  of  life  performs  upon  them  in  person  what 
would  rank  as  a  most  menial  service. 

Christ  teaches  that  our  highest  obligation  is  discharged 
in  service,  and  the  measure  of  our  obligation  to  serve 
is  the  measure  of  our  power,  of  our  resources.  Love 
to  God  and  to  man  will  inspire  the  spirit  of  service. 
But  service  itself  furnishes  the  best  test  and  measure 
of  one's  love.  Service  furnishes  the  best  evidence  of 
one's  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  kingdom.  Christ 
himself  makes  not  creed,  not  profession,  not  official 
rank  in  his  Church,  the  test  on  which  men  shall  finally 
be  approved  or  condemned — but  service.  This  is  the 
one  lesson  taught  in  his  vivid  description  of  a  last 
judgment. 

Now,  if  we  look  deeply  into  the  heart  and  conviction 
of  our  times,  we  shall  find  that  no  voice  is  clearer,  no 
demand  more  emphatic,  no  sentiment  more  incarnate  in 
modern  life,  than  those  which  call  upon  all  men,  in 
the  measure  of  their  capacity,  to  serve  the  interests 
of  their  fellows.  The  spirit  of  Christ  has  so  far  cap- 
tivated human  thought  that  men  are  coming  everywhere 
to  feel  that  if  for  themselves  they  would  make  the  most 
of  life  and  character  they  must  seek  out  the  best  methods 
and  channels  of  service  to  others.  A  sense  of  this  fact 
prompts  many  a  man  of  wealth,  however  his  gains  were 
gotten,  to  devise  liberal  benefactions  for  the  service 
of  human  needs.  The  sordid  rich  man  who  is  forgetful 
of  the  obligation  of  service  which  accompanies  his 
wealth,  but  who  is  willing  to  live  and  die  in  the  selfish 
direction  of  the  same,  is  increasingly  and  justly  regarded 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  233 

as  a  kind  of  monstrosity.  A  living  and  irrepressible 
sentiment  of  the  times  more  and  more  measures  the 
value  of  the  rich  man  by  the  measure  of  the  moral  con- 
tribution which  through  his  wealth  he  gives  to  or  with- 
holds from  society.  But  not  the  rich  alone;  every  man, 
in  the  measure  of  his  ability,  Christ  holds  responsible 
for  serving  the  brotherhood  of  the  kingdom. 

The  great  corollary  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  is 
the  solidarity  of  human  interests  and  needs.  Service 
alone  can  fill  and  satisfy  the  diagram  of  these  needs, 
and  all  service  which  the  real  interests  of  humanity 
require  is  essentially  noble  in  itself.  Christianity  idealizes 
service,  and  honors  its  loyal  doer  whatever  may  be  the 
sphere  of  his  task.  A  perfect  world  can  never  come 
where  needed  work  at  any  point  is  left  undone.  Every 
true  worker,  however  humble  his  sphere,  is  one  who 
in  his  place  is  contributing  something  to  the  perfection 
of  the  kingdom  which  Christ  is  building  in  the  world. 
This  fact  gives  dignity  to  every  act  of  honest  toil.  It 
is  not  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to  measure  men  by 
their  spheres  of  work,  but  by  their  fidelity  to  duty, 
their  loyalty  to  their  Divine  Lord.  When  the  brother- 
hood of  man  is  recognized  there  will  be  no  invidious 
distinctions  between  men,  all  of  whom  are  ranked  as 
sons  of  God. 

It  may  be  said  without  fear  of  intelligent  challenge 
that  every  thought  which  carries  inspiration  to  better 
living,  every  invention  which  adds  to  the  betterment 
of  industrial  life,  every  movement  of  civilization  to  a 
higher  plane  of  character — all  are  the  birth  and  product 
of  forces  clearly  embraced  in  the  Christian  program. 
All  the  great  agencies  which  to-day  are  really  serving 


234       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

the  interests  of  humanity  are  agencies  which  Christ  is 
subsidizing  in  the  building  of  his  kingdom.  The  king- 
dom of  Christ  is  alone  the  kingdom  of  prophecy.  The 
forces  which  are  working  against  it,  however  apparently 
strong,  are  forces  against  which  the  very  stars  in  their 
courses  are  fighting.  The  testing  of  every  creed  and 
of  every  philosophy  only  serves  the  more  convincingly 
to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
alone  promises  the  noblest  character  to  the  individual 
and  the  highest  weal  to  society. 

In  any  conceivable  earthly  state  there  will  always  be 
exceptions  to  the  ideal.  Under  best  human  conditions 
there  is  likely  to  be  found  occasionally  the  imbecile, 
the  shiftless,  the  pauper,  the  criminal.  But  even  with 
these  Christian  government  will  deal  with  humanest 
wisdom.  There  are  really  no  difficult  social  or  civic 
problems  now  vexing  human  thought  which  would  not 
find  best  solution  if  they  were  really  to  come  under 
the  administration  of  applied  Christian  principles.  And 
it  may  be  safely  said  outside  of  Christianity  there  is 
absolutely  no  other  philosophy,  no  other  gospel,  that 
can  give  any  guarantee  of  an  ideal  future  for  the  race. 

And  so  we  rest  in  the  assurance  that  Christ  is  the 
ideal  King.  The  principles  of  his  gospel,  always  adaptive 
to  present  needs,  are  also  always  far  in  advance  of  the 
world's  growth.  Christ  will  never  be  outgrown,  never 
discrowned.  Both  the  fundamental  principles  of  his 
teaching  and  his  personal  character  and  example  furnish 
amplest  suggestion  of  principles  which  may  be  applied 
to  every  emergency  of  civilization.  The  very  term 
"Fatherhood  of  God"  is  a  whole  moral  legislation  in 
itself.     The  same  is  equally  true  of  that  other  phrase, 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  235 

"brotherhood  of  man."  Supreme  love  to  God,  and 
perfect  love  to  one's  neighbor,  as  conceptions,  carry  in 
themselves  the  prophecy  of  paradise  regained.  The 
spirit  of  service  as  exemplified  in  the  life  of  Christ,  if 
universally  enthroned  in  human  practice,  would  cause 
all  the  desert  places  of  society  to  blossom  as  the  rose, 
would  leave  no  material  need  unsupplied,  and  would 
fill  the  world  with  the  fruits  of  righteousness  and  peace. 
Christ  called  himself  the  "Son  of  man."  In  this 
character  he  put  himself  before  every  man  of  the  race 
as  embodying  in  himself  the  absolutely  perfect  humanity. 
He  was  the  friend  of  the  rich  and  privileged  in  society, 
though  his  mission  did  not  require  that  he  should  show 
unto  them  any  special  sympathy  with  their  privileged 
condition.  He,  though  rich,  chose  for  himself  a  life  of 
poverty.  He  who  was  really  Lord  of  the  world  moved 
among  men  as  a  servant.  He  was  as  much  a  friend 
of  the  rich  as  of  the  poor,  but  he  was  infinitely  removed 
from  a  disposition  to  pay  any  servile  tribute  to  the 
conditions  of  material  wealth.  For  his  incarnate  mis- 
sion he  chose  the  lot  of  poverty  because  thus  he  could 
best  illustrate  God's  sympathy  with  the  toiling  major- 
ities of  mankind.  He  was  himself  a  carpenter.  By 
all  the  material  conditions  of  his  life  he  stood  on  a  plane 
of  practical  sympathy  with  the  world's  humble  toilers. 
Christ  classed  himself  with  the  very  poor,  but  he  never 
permitted  the  temptations  and  trials  of  poverty  to 
submerge  his  lofty  manhood.  Though  so  poor  as  to 
be  homeless,  he  was  loyal  to  duty,  pure  in  spirit,  self- 
forgetful  in  his  service  for  others,  seeking  always  the 
welfare  of  those  about  him,  cheerful  and  heroic  in  spirit, 
loving  God  supremely.     Thus  Christ  demonstrated  the 


236      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

possibilities  of  the  highest  manhood  in  conditions  of 
poverty,  the  fact  that  the  noblest  character  can  man- 
ifest itself  and  do  its  work  even  in  the  midst  of  most 
unfavorable  physical  and  social  environments.  And  these 
are  lessons  which  need  to  translate  themselves  into  the 
very  heart  and  convictions  of  modem  society. 

Much  of  the  trouble  with  organized  labor  is  that 
it  is  cultivating  its  discontents  as  against  material 
conditions,  seeking  enlarging  compensation  on  the  basis 
of  a  minified  service,  while  at  the  same  time  many  of 
its  members  seem  forgetful  of  those  ideals  of  virtue, 
of  sobriety,  of  thrift,  of  loyalty  to  duty  both  to  God 
and  man,  in  which  alone  inhere  the  higher  qualities 
of  manhood.  For  all  these  discontented  masses  Christ 
has  given  an  infinitely  better  example  for  emulation 
than  is  furnished  in  any  gospel  of  socialistic  propaganda. 

But  the  practical  example  of  Christ  needs  to  be  studied 
by  all  classes  of  society.  From  first  to  last  he  gave 
himself  in  a  spirit  of  untiring  service.  Wherever  and 
in  whatever  garb  human  need  addressed  itself  to  him, 
there  his  ministering  hand  was  outstretched.  He  did 
not  seek  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  literally  to  give 
his  life  in  ministry  to  others.  He  taught  that  it  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.  And  this  is  a 
supreme  lesson  to  get  upon  the  world's  heart.  Its 
prophecy  may  not  soon  be  realized.  But  when  men 
come  to  feel  that  humanity  is  a  real  brotherhood,  that 
the  structure  of  society  is  a  sacred  thing,  a  structure 
so  sacred  as  religiously  to  demand  the  highest  service 
of  all  its  members,  that  it  is  the  very  structure  through 
which  God  is  to  build  his  kingdom  on  earth,  then  the 
day  of  Christ's  accepted  Kingship  will  have  fully  dawned. 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  237 

And  there  is  no  room  for  despair.  God,  who  sent 
forth  his  Son  into  this  world,  is  enthroned  above  the 
misty  skies  and  conflicting  currents  of  human  thought. 
In  ways  of  his  own  infinite  wisdom,  and  by  methods 
far  more  effective  than  are  apprehended  by  human 
vision,  he  is  shaping  and  converging  events  toward 
the  day  which  will  witness  the  supreme  Kingship  of 
Christ  among  men.  The  mists  are  not  so  thick,  nor 
the  conflict  of  thought  so  confusing,  as  to  hide  from 
prophetic  minds  the  signs  of  coming  triumph. 

If  man  is  a  spiritual  being,  if  his  primal  and  deepest 
needs  are  of  a  spiritual  character;  if  God  is  seeking 
above  all  things  else  also  to  establish  a  spiritual  reign 
over  the  world,  then  there  is  the  largest  prophecy  in 
man's  prodigious  material  conquest  of  nature  itself.  The 
very  conquest  of  physical  realms  is  but  a  preparation 
on  a  vast  scale  for  the  successful  incoming  of  Christ's 
kingdom.  Just  as  the  presence  of  Roman  civilization 
and  of  Roman  highways  prepared  the  way  for  the  initial 
introduction  of  the  gospel,  so  the  scientific  appliances 
which  are  now  reducing  the  entire  world  to  a  single 
neighborhood,  and  bringing  the  most  distant  nations 
into  vital  commercial  and  intellectual  relationships  with 
each  other,  thus  proving  the  real  solidarity  and  com- 
munity of  world  interests,  are  all  of  them  a  preparation 
of  the  highest  order  for  the  introduction  of  the  final 
spiritual  rule.  Man  as  chiefly  a  spiritual  being  cannot 
finally  rest  in  any  material  conquest  of  nature,  however 
rewarding  such  conquest.  He  will  ultimately  subordinate 
and  consecrate  all  material  resources  and  appliances  to 
the  ends  of  a  spiritual  kingdom. 

All  this  must  mean — and  there  should  be  no  attempt 


238       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

to  make  it  mean  less — that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  shall 
be  finally  triumphant  because  of  the  in-working  upon 
human  thought  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  This  kingdom  is 
not  a  product  of  nature,  not  even  of  human  nature. 
No  merely  natural  progress  of  man  will  ever  bring  it 
to  pass.  The  kingdom  will  come  through  the  processes 
of  a  divine  and  universal  religious  influence.  It  will 
mean  the  reign  of  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  men. 

And  why  should  not  this  be  expected?  The  leaven 
of  divine  righteousness,  a  force  more  powerful  than 
that  which  holds  the  worlds  in  their  orbits,  is  working 
everywhere  in  human  thought.  There  is  much  in  his- 
tory, in  present  philosophy,  in  the  wide  unrest  which 
blindly  voices  the  unsatisfied  needs  of  humanity,  to 
indicate  both  the  need  and  the  promise  of  a  coming 
era  of  great  spiritual  light  and  power.  There  have 
been  marked  manifestations  of  God's  power  in  the  past. 
The  illumination  of  the  splendid  succession  of  Hebrew 
prophets,  Pentecost,  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  Wesleyan  revival,  the  steady  and  rising 
tide  of  Christian  influences  throughout  the  world  as 
witnessed  in  this  modern  age — all  evidence  the  stately 
goings  forth  of  divine  power.  God's  purpose  has  not 
changed,  nor  is  his  power  exhausted.  There  will  yet 
come  to  the  world  a  religious  sense  which  will  invest 
life's  common  duties  with  sacredness,  which  will  reveal 
service  for  the  common  good  as  a  paramount  obligation, 
which  will  bring  the  sanctions  of  eternity  to  bear  upon 
all  the  domestic,  industrial,  and  political  relations  of  life. 

The  apparent  obstacles  to  this  consummation,  ob- 
stacles which  seem  to  inhere  in  human  nature  itself, 
need  not  be  minified.     But  no  obstacles  can  thwart  the 


CHRIST  AND  THE  MODERN  AGE  239 

divine  purpose.  In  some  day  a  new  world,  making 
its  advent  as  the  holy  city  which  the  Revelator  saw 
coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  will  appear  in 
history.  And  in  that  day  the  tabernacle  of  God  shall 
be  with  men,  and  he  shall  dwell  with  them,  and  they 
shall  be  his  people,  and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them 
and  be  their  God. 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS 


*4i 


It  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  favorite  tenet  of  mine,  that  Atheism 
is  as  absurd,  logically  speaking,  as  Polytheism;  and  that  denying 
the  possibility  of  miracles  seems  to  me  as  unjustifiable  as  speculative 
Atheism. — Huxley  . 

The  elimination  of  the  miraculous  element  from  the  gospel  history 
can  never  take  place  without  a  deep  injury  or  even  a  total  destruc- 
tive alteration  of  the  entire  substance  of  the  Christian  religion. — 
Christlieb. 

I  realize  the  improbability  of  an  exception  to  a  generalization 
sustained  by  so  immense  a  mass  of  accordant  experience.  But, 
when  I  think  of  the  alternatives  to  belief  in  the  resurrection,  they 
all  seem  to  me  so  much  more  improbable  that  I  find  it  easier  to  accept 
the  one  mystery  which  explains  all  mysteries.  To  believe  that  the 
faith  in  the  resurrection  was  a  delusion  so  contradicting  all  psycho- 
logical laws,  or  a  myth  which  was  fully  developed  in  a  single  day,  or 
a  falsehood  perpetrated  by  the  disciples  to  bring  upon  themselves 
imprisonment  and  death — to  believe  that  the  system  of  religious 
faith  which  has  created  a  new  and  nobler  civilization  had  its  origin 
in  fraud  or  deception — taxes  credulity  more  than  to  believe  that 
Jesus  rose  from  the  dead. — Professor  W.  N.  Rice. 

O  will  of  God,  be  thou  our  willl 

Then,  come  or  joy  or  pain, 
Made  one  with  thee  it  cannot  be 

That  we  shall  wish  in  vain; 
And,  whether  granted  or  denied, 
Our  hearts  shall  be  all  satisfied. 

— Susan  Coolidge. 

This  earth  too  small 
For  Love  Divine?    Is  God  not  infinite? 
If  so,  his  love  is  infinite.    Too  small! 
One  famished  babe  meets  pity  oft  from  Man 
More  than  an  army  slain!    Too  small  for  Love! 
Was  earth  too  small  to  be  of  God  created? 
Why  then  too  small  to  be  redeemed? 

— Aubrey  De  Vere. 


242 


CHAPTER  XIV 
MIRACLES   AND  OTHER  WONDERS 

It  is  no  overstatement  to  assert  that  the  intellectual 
temper  of  the  present  concerning  miracles  is  largely 
skeptical.  This  skepticism  is  greatly  overdone.  It  is 
not  sustained  by  the  deepest  intelligence.  Much  of  it 
is  simply  an  echo  of  an  effete  and  discredited  philosophy. 
The  Dens  ex  machina  philosophy  is  dead.  This  philos- 
ophy reduced  nature  to  a  machine  with  which  God 
had  about  as  much  relation  as  a  man  has  to  a  clock 
which  he  periodically  winds.  The  difference  would  be 
that  God  was  assumed  originally  to  have  started  the 
nature  machine  and  then  forever  let  it  alone  to  run 
itself.  On  this  theory  a  miracle  would  be  a  most  im- 
probable event.  It  would  be  something  utterly  outside 
the  province  of  the  machine.  It  would  indicate  nothing 
less  than  an  invasion  by  an  absentee  God  into  the  realm 
of  natural  laws  for  the  purpose  either  of  arresting  these 
laws  or  of  imparting  to  them  some  new  and  unusual 
function.  A  disciple  of  this  philosophy  would  most 
naturally  be  skeptical  as  to  the  possibility  of  miracles; 
but,  if  he  accepted  the  miracle,  he  would  attach  to  it 
a  thaumaturgical  importance,  as  of  a  most  unusual 
advent  of  God  to  his  world. 

In  the  accepted  theism  of  to-day  God  is  thought  of 
as  immanent  in  the  universe.  Nature  is  not  an  inde- 
pendent order.  It  is  not  causal  in  itself.  It  is  simply 
the  vesture  or  vehicle  in  which  and  through  which  God 
as  creative  and  directive  will  manifests  himself.     He  is 

243 


244      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

the  power  behind  all  phenomena.  His  intelligence  or- 
dains nature's  methods,  and  his  will  empowers  their 
activities.  He  as  the  creative  and  directive  will  is 
vitally  present  in  all  nature's  processes.  The  poise  of 
the  world  in  its  orbit,  the  blossoming  of  the  spring 
roses,  the  ripening  of  autumn  fruit,  and  the  beating 
of  the  human- heart  are  alike  the  products  of  his  activity. 
Nature  in  this  view  is  itself  a  perpetual  miracle  of  God's 
on-going.  Under  this  philosophy,  any  miracle  that  might 
serve  a  moral  purpose  would  not  a  priori  seem  nec- 
essarily improbable. 

That  God's  activities  in  nature  are  largely  characterized 
by  uniformity  is  evident.  So  far  as  the  human  race 
and  the  interest  of  its  civilizations  are  concerned,  this 
uniformity  is  a  beneficence.  Were  it  not  for  the  known 
reliability  of  what  we  familiarly  call  the  laws  of  nature, 
there  would  be  no  basis  for  human  society,  for  educa- 
tion, for  industrial  organization,  nor,  indeed,  for  human 
progress  at  all.  It  is  on  the  basis  of  this  uniformity 
that  there  are  upbuilt  reliably  all  the  interests  and 
structures  of  human  civilization. 

But  because  we  are  able  to  discover  much  valuable 
uniformity  in  God's  methods,  therefore  to  assume  that 
the  ever  in-working  God  might  not,  or  could  not,  per- 
form a  miracle  is  nothing  less  than  an  absurdity  of 
intellect.  We  certainly  must  concede  to  God,  only  on 
an  infinitely  more  various  scale,  the  same  liberty  to 
combine  and  to  modify  the  movements  of  nature  that 
we  grant  to  the  human  inventor.  The  genius  of  man, 
while  always  working  within  the  sphere  of  law,  has 
wrought  innumerable  wonders  by  effecting  new  com- 
binations in  nature's  processes.     It  has  been  one  of  the 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  245 

baldest  assumptions  of  SCIENCE,  the  kind  of  science 
which  always  parades  itself  in  capital  letters,  that  such 
is  the  absolute  uniformity  of  nature's  laws  as  to  make 
miracle  a  physical  impossibility.  To  such  assumption  it 
may  be  replied  that  not  all  the  wise  men  of  the  world 
know  enough  about  the  causal  forces  in  nature  to  give 
any  certitude  to  such  a  theory.  Indeed,  such  knowledge 
as  we  have  of  whole  classes  of  phenomena  does  not 
lend  itself  to  this  theory  at  all. 

I  return,  then,  to  say  that  under  the  philosophy  of 
the  divine  immanence  the  fact  of  miracle  is  not  only 
possible,  but  under  certain  conditions  may  be  conceded 
as  rationally  probable.  God,  for  all  that  we  know, 
might  work  miracles,  any  number  of  them,  and  all 
entirely  within  the  sphere  of  what  we  call  nature's  laws. 
It  is  entirely  beyond  the  province  of  human  knowledge 
to  show  that  the  miracle-working  God  is  a  lawbreaker 
in  nature.  A  miracle  is  conceivably  just  as  normal 
an  act  of  God  as  is  the  causing  of  the  grasses  to  grow 
in  the  springtime.  If,  therefore,  at  any  time,  for  the 
purpose  of  impressing  himself  more  distinctly  upon  the 
thought  and  heart  of  men,  God  should  elect  to  work 
miracles,  there  is  in  reason  no  inherent  improbability 
against  his  so  working. 

It  remains,  however,  to  be  said  that  there  is  a  strong 
conviction  in  present  religious  thought  that  the  Christian 
system  is  not  now  dependent  upon  the  continuance  of 
miracle.  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon,  one  of  the  foremost 
religious  seers  of  the  age,  has  written  a  strong  book, 
Religion  and  Miracle,  in  support  of  this  view.  If  he 
had  undertaken  to  prove  that  in  Christian  history  miracles 
had  never  occurred  it  would  be  perfectly  certain  that 


246      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

he  had  failed  of  his  case.  But  in  the  real  purpose  of 
his  book,  which  is  to  show  that  Christianity  is  not  now 
dependent  for  its  life  and  usefulness  upon  miracle,  he 
has  presented  a  strong  and  rational  view. 

That  Christ,  in  the  particular  age  in  which  his  advent 
occurred,  and  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing  attention 
to  his  divine  character  and  mission,  should  have  per- 
formed miracles  seems  not  improbable.  That  Christ 
actually  did  perform  miracles  would  appear  to  be  a 
fact  as  well  authenticated  as  any  historic  statement 
which  has  come  to  us  from  so  ancient  a  period.  Than 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  no  fact  of 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago  would  seem  to  be  more  cer- 
tainly attested.  Historically,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
is  the  foundation  on  which  is  reared  the  stupendous 
structure  of  the  Christian  Church.  Disprove  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ,  and  the  origin  of  the  Church  is  the 
most  anomalous  and  most  inexplicable  event  in  human 
history.  The  difficulty  of  miracle  would  by  no  means 
be  removed  if  it  could  be  demonstrated  that  Christ 
did  not  rise  from  the  dead.  There  would  then  remain 
the  two  great  miracles  of  the  persistent  life  and  success 
of  the  Christian  Church  and  the  place  of  Jesus  in  his- 
tory. Neither  can  be  accounted  for  save  on  the  basis 
of  Christ's  resurrection.  Let  the  white  light  of  the 
most  searching  investigation  be  focused  upon  the  origin 
of  Christianity,  and  the  triumphant  coming  forth  of 
Christ  from  his  sepulcher  is  the  only  hypothesis  that 
will  rationally  and  satisfyingly  account  for  the  fact. 
That  well-nigh  peerless  philosophical  thinker  of  our 
times,  the  late  Dr.  Borden  P.  Bowne,  has  acutely  said 
of  the   miracle   of  the   resurrection   that,   "Without  it 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  247 

not  much  of  the  Christian  faith  would  be  left,  and, 
having  it,  we  can  dispense  with  most  of  the  rest." 

But  if  one  miracle  was  performed  in  attestation  of 
Christ's  mission  it  is  altogether  probable  that  other 
miracles  may  also  have  occurred  as  wrought  not  only 
by  Christ  himself,  but  as  well  by  his  authorized  agents. 
For  my  own  part,  I  would  like,  at  the  expense,  doubt- 
less, of  being  thought  by  some  quite  unscientific,  to 
declare  that  the  idea  of  miracles  as  wrought  by  Jesus 
Christ,  or  by  others  through  power  delegated  by  him, 
is  one  which  does  not  give  me  the  slightest  disturbance. 
I  am  so  impressed  with  the  deific  character  of  Christ, 
I  so  fully  believe  in  his  absolute  sovereignty  over,  in 
his  infinite  transcendence  of,  physical  nature,  as  to  make 
it  entirely  easy  for  me  to  believe  that,  for  the  purpose 
of  accentuating  a  revelation  which  he  might  purpose  to 
give  to  finite  minds,  the  performance  of  miracle  by  him 
would  be  most  reasonably  credible.  I  am  content  to 
believe  that  any  miracle  by  which  he  might  prove  or 
illustrate  his  sovereignty  over  nature,  so  far  from  doing 
violence  to  nature's  methods,  would  be  simply  a  dis- 
tinctive and  inimitable  act  performed  by  Him  who  is 
alone  the  Lord  of  nature's  processes. 

In  a  world  in  which  God  is  immanent  there  is  rational 
room  for  prayer.  Prayer  is  a  subject  of  universal  interest. 
There  is  no  more  deeply  planted  instinct  in  nature 
than  that  which  prompts  man  to  pray.  Man  every- 
where and  in  all  ages  has  been  a  praying  creature.  The 
act  of  prayer  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Hebrew 
or  Christian  worshiper.  As  a  phenomenon,  it  is  just 
as  pronounced  in  pagan  and  heathen  cults  as  in  the 
religion  of  the  Bible.     In  some  lives  the  prompting  to 


248       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

pray  may  seem  long  silent,  the  instinct  suppressed,  but 
is  never  eradicated.  In  some  unexpected  moment,  in 
some  emergency,  prayer  will  leap  from  the  startled 
heart  as  a  frightened  bird  from  its  cover.  In  hours  of 
smiting  stress  men  who  know  not  God  pray  that  they 
may  find  him;  and  men  who  have  found  him  delight 
to  pray  because  they  know  him. 

It  is  a  principle  recognized  in  all  the  philosophy  of 
nature  that  wherever  there  is  an  instinct  there  is  some- 
where in  environment  a  quality  which  responds  to  the 
craving  of  that  instinct.  Wherever  there  is  an  aptitude 
there  is  in  nature  a  correspondence.  This  is  an  expres- 
sion of  God's  method  in  his  world.  To  the  waterfowl 
there  is  given  an  instinct  that  prompts  its  migration 
from  northern  to  southern  seas,  or  vice  versa,  and  to 
the  same  fowl  there  is  also  given  the  instinct  which 
unerringly  guides  its  distant  flights  along  its  hitherto 
unknown  journeyings.  This  is  accepted  as  philosophical. 
But  if  God  has  implanted  in  the  bosom  of  the  water- 
fowl, for  the  purposes  of  its  own  career,  an  instinct  of 
infallible  guidance,  is  it  reasonable  to  assume  that  in 
the  nature  of  this  immeasurably  higher  being,  man, 
God  has  permitted  the  instinct  of  prayer,  the  impulse 
of  worship,  the  irrepressible  craving  after  himself,  and 
only  that  all  this  may  remain  in  his  bosom  an  unsatisfied 
hunger,  an  unexplained  enigma,  a  mocking  lie?  This 
assumption  is  not  rational,  it  is  not  the  kind  of  hypothesis 
on  which  science  builds.  If,  then,  we  put  prayer  simply 
on  the  plane  of  what  we  familiarly  call  natural  phenomena 
it  will  appear  as  something  entirely  rational,  be  found 
to  rest  upon  a  secure  philosophical  basis. 

Turning  to  the  Bible,   it  assumes  and  teaches  from 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  249 

beginning  to  end  that  prayer  is  of  a  divine  order.  God 
not  only  enjoins  men  everywhere  to  pray,  but  promises 
ineffable  blessings  in  answer  to  prayer.  In  preceding 
pages  the  Fatherhood  of  God  has  been  emphasized. 
If  God  stands  in  any  relation  as  the  Father  of  the  human 
soul,  then  prayer  to  God  from  this  child,  and  the  Father's 
answer  to  this  prayer,  is  not  only  a  logical,  but  an  inev- 
itable and  necessary,  fact  of  the  relationship.  It  is 
baldly  assumed  by  many  that  it  is  a  function  beneath 
God's  greatness  that  he  should  give  heed  and  answer 
to  the  cry  that  comes  up  to  him  from  a  human  heart. 
But  if  it  be  a  fact  that  God  is  the  Creator  and  Father 
of  the  human  spirit,  then  there  would  seem  no  function 
more  worthy  of  God  than  that  he  should  give  answer 
to  the  yearning  cry  of  his  child.  There  is  no  relation 
in  which  the  thought  of  God  is  so  captivating  as  that 
in  which  he  reveals  himself  as  a  Father. 

It  is  a  condition  of  Christian  prayer  that  it  shall  be 
addressed  to  the  Father  in  the  name  of  his  Son.  God's 
supreme  purpose  with  this  human  world  centers  in  the 
work  and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  God  as  immanent 
in  the  world  is  subordinating  all  the  long  movements 
of  history  to  the  final  triumph  of  Christ's  kingdom 
among  men.  The  forces  that  make  for  the  success  of 
this  kingdom  have  their  full  scope  for  action  in  what 
is  called,  by  workers  in  the  laboratory,  "the  order  of 
nature,"  really  the  ordering  of  God.  In  the  processes 
of  Christ's  kingdom  prayer  as  a  factor  is  greatly  empha- 
sized in  New  Testament  teaching.  Christ  not  only 
taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  but  himself  amid  mountain 
solitudes  spent  whole  nights  in  prayer. 

The  purpose  of  prayer  is  manifold.     It  is  a  means 


25o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

by  which  the  soul  comes  into  personal  communion  with 
God  by  wishing  itself  toward  him.  The  soul  in  its 
healthier  moods  hungers  for  God,  and  prayer  is  the 
wings  on  which  it  lifts  itself  to  the  Divine  Presence. 
But  as  the  soul  rises  Godward  on  the  wings  of  prayer 
it  carries  in  itself  the  conditions  which  permit  God's 
incoming  into  its  own  life.  Prayer  is  a  condition  of 
harmonizing  the  human  will  with  the  divine  will.  The 
very  soul  of  the  prayer  which  Jesus  taught  his  disciples 
is  the  petition  which  calls  for  the  doing  of  God's  per- 
fect will  on  earth,  the  doing  of  that  will  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  worshiper  himself.  And  when  the  will  of 
God  is  realized  in  the  heart  of  the  worshiper,  then  the 
man  becomes  a  new  moral  and  causal  force  in  the  king- 
dom itself.  His  individual  life  is  one  added  factor  among 
the  makers  of  the  kingdom.  To  such  a  man  the  promise 
is  that  he  shall  ask  what  he  will  and  it  shall  be  done 
unto  him.  This  is  far  from  the  assumption  that  prayer 
is  ordained  to  secure  to  men  such  divine  action  as  will 
serve  merely  human  and  selfish  purposes.  True  Christian 
prayer  is  always,  at  its  very  core,  subordinate  to  the 
divine  will.  But  to  such  prayer  the  greatest  promises 
are  given.  The  soul  that  lives  in  the  habitual  mood 
of  such  prayer  finds  itself  not  only  divinely  strengthened 
for  all  work,  but  wondrously  sustained  and  supported 
in  all  of  life's  trials  and  burdens.  And  only  God  can 
say  how  far  the  influence  of  such  prayer  may  go  in 
influencing  the  souls  of  men  and  the  destinies  of  the 
kingdom.  Christian  history  is  rich  in  the  data  of 
answered  prayer.  God,  who  works  in  all  realms,  is 
securing  the  right  of  way  for  the  kingdom  of  his  Son. 
He  is  under  pledge  to  use  his  almighty  power  to  answer 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  251 

prayer  offered  in  the  name  and  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Prayer  is  a  divine  telepathy  by  which  the 
saintly  soul  may  touch  the  very  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
great  Laureate  was  seer-like  when  he  wrote: 

"More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.    Wherefore  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

There  is  a  standpoint,  however,  from  which  no  in- 
formed person  can  fail  to  appreciate  difficulties,  some 
of  them  enormous,  which  confront  minds  of  a  purely 
materialistic  habit  in  the  way  of  accepting  both  miracles 
and  prayer.  The  very  assumption  of  miracle  calls  for 
Providence — indeed,  a  miracle  itself  is  a  "special" 
providence.  The  same  thought  inheres  in  the  very 
concept  of  prayer.  In  the  vast  measurements  of  the 
material  universe  which  science  now  commands,  in  the 
very  conceptions  which  our  knowledge  of  nature  now 
forces  upon  our  intelligence,  there  is  much  which  makes 
the  old-fashioned  and  simple  faith  in  Providence  difficult 
of  acceptance.  Science,  by  infallible  processes  and  by 
heaven-searching  implements,  has,  in  very  recent  times, 
brought  to  our  view  a  vast  universe,  the  near  borders 
of  which  the  human  imagination,  in  its  wildest  flight, 
had  never  before  touched. 

When  it  was  well-nigh  universally  believed  that  the 
earth  which  we  inhabit  was  the  principal  and  central 
orb  in  the  heavens,  and  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars 
all  paid  it  the  homage  due  a  sovereign,  and  when  man 


252       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

— and  rightfully  so — was  looked  upon  as  the  one  lordly- 
citizen  of  the  world,  then  it  was  easy  to  believe  that 
the  God  of  the  heavens  had  ordained  this  earth  as  the 
chief  object  of  his  care,  and  that  to  the  human  race 
was  given  the  first  concern  of  his  brooding  providence. 
But  this  conception  of  the  earth  has  not  only  been 
entirely  displaced,  it  is  proven  a  conception  worthy 
only  of  most  infantile  thought.  The  earth  is  now  known 
to  be  only  one  of  the  minor  members  of  a  family  of 
planets  which  move  in  their  various  orbits  around  a 
central  sun.  What  we  now  know  as  the  solar  system 
is  vast  beyond  any  previous  dream  of  the  human  brain. 
Our  earth  moves  in  an  orbit  of  approximately  about 
93,000,000  miles  away  from  the  sun,  but  Neptune, 
lying  on  the  outermost  borders  of  the  system,,  moves 
in  an  orbit  distant  from  the  sun  2,760,000,000  miles. 
The  earth  makes  the  circle  of  its  orbit  once  in  every 
year.  Neptune,  moving  at  the  rate  of  200  miles  per 
minute,  requires  164  years  to  make  the  circuit  of  the 
solar  system.  We  gain  some  impression  of  vastness  if 
we  reflect  that  in  the  sphere  of  the  sun  there  is  room 
to  store  away  a  million  worlds  such  as  that  on  which 
we  dwell. 

By  a  daring  flight  of  human  ingenuity,  the  generaliza- 
tion has  been  reached  that  all  the  worlds  of  this  system, 
including  the  sun  itself,  are  composed  of  the  same  sub- 
stances, and  are  subject  to  the  same  laws  of  formation 
and  decay.  And  this  conclusion  is  no  mere  speculation. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  by  infallible  processes  which 
have  yielded  the  most  indubitable  proofs.  The  solar 
spectrum  not  only  shows  the  common  material  kin- 
ship of  all  the  worlds  in  our  solar  system,  but  it  reports 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  253 

the  same  substances,  the  same  relationships,  for  the 
most  distant  worlds  in  space.  The  irresistible  conclusion 
is  that  the  material  universe,  as  far  as  it  can  be  traced, 
is  of  one  character;  that  its  infinite  worlds  are  but  con- 
glomerates of  the  same  substances  of  which  our  earth 
itself  is  composed.  It  would  thus  appear  that  there 
is  a  common  kinship  of  matter  in  all  worlds,  and  that 
everywhere  throughout  the  universe  the  same  processes 
of  evolution  and  of  decay  are  indefinitely  repeating 
themselves.  The  significant  inference  from  this  is  that 
all  worlds  in  space  are  not  only  held  in  the  grasp  of  a 
common  power,  but  that  back  of  them  all,  producing 
the  same  materials,  and  working  to  identical  ends, 
there  has  wrought  the  same  infinite,  inscrutable  Cause. 

If  now  for  a  little  we  confine  our  thought  to  the  solar 
system  alone,  we  can  but  see  that  physically,  as  com- 
pared with  earlier  beliefs,  modern  knowledge  has  immeas- 
urably reduced  the  relative  importance  of  the  earth. 
In  the  ocean  spaces  of  this  system  the  earth  is  but  an 
insignificant  island.  Measured  from  this  standpoint,  it  is 
manifestly  not  so  easy  as  formerly  to  give  credence  to 
the  assumption  that  either  the  earth  or  man  can  hold 
the  supreme  place  in  any  conceivable  order  of  Providence. 

But  our  solar  system,  including  the  sun  and  its  entire 
family  of  planets,  with  all  its  seeming — its  real — vast- 
ness,  is  now  known  to  be  but  an  insignificant  unit  in 
an  infinite  series  of  other  stellar  systems.  The  diameter 
of  the  solar  system  is  5,520,000,000  miles,  a  practically 
uncountable  number.  It  would  take  an  express  train 
moving  incessantly  and  in  a  straight  line  at  the  rate 
of  sixty  miles  an  hour  more  than  10,500  years  to  move 
from  border  to  border  of  this  system.     This  distance, 


254       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

minor  as  it  is  in  the  stellar  scale,  practically  baffles 
human  conception.  It  is  estimated  that  the  first  of 
the  fixed  stars,  the  nearest  neighbor  sun  to  our  own, 
lies  removed  at  a  distance  of  not  less  than  25,575,000,- 
000,000  miles.  We  get  some  suggestion  of  the  meaning 
of  this  distance  when  we  remember  that  light,  traveling 
at  the  amazing  rate  of  more  than  600,000,000  miles  an 
hour,  will  require  nearly  four  and  a  quarter  years  to  cross 
the  void  that  lies  between  Alpha  Centauri  and  our  sun. 
To  conceive  adequately  the  meaning  of  this  distance 
is  impossible  to  the  human  mind.  But  as  yet  we  are 
upon  the  near  borders  of  an  unknown  infinite.  Pro- 
fessor Simon  Newcomb,  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of 
American  astronomers,  has  estimated  that  lying  in 
unmeasured  space,  at  relative  distances  from  each  other 
as  great — and  often  vastly  greater — as  that  of  our  sun 
from  the  nearest  fixed  star,  there  are  at  least  125,000,000 
suns,  all  of  them  visible  to  us  by  telescopic  or  photo- 
graphic means.  If  this  were  all,  it  would  mean  accord- 
ing to  most  reliable  estimates  a  stellar  universe  of  such 
dimensions  as  to  require  3,300  years  for  the  flight  of 
light  from  one  of  its  boundaries  to  the  other.  But 
there  is  no  reason  to  conclude  that,  instead  of  125,000,000, 
there  may  not  be  a  thousand  millions  of  suns  in  space. 
In  the  dream  of  Richter,  when  the  human  spirit,  over- 
whelmed in  wonder,  is  speeding  past  suns  and  systems 
on  the  wings  of  light,  to  the  astonished  inquiry  of  the 
spirit  the  angel  guide  is  made  to  say:  "To  the  universe 
there  is  no  beginning,  and,  lo!  there  is  no  end." 

A  fact  to  note  is  that  some  of  the  stars  that  have 
already  come  within  the  astronomer's  ken  are,  in  their 
dimensions,  of  most  amazing  proportions.     It  is  estimated 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  255 

that  at  the  lowest  limit  Canopus  is  more  than  a  million 
times  the  size  of  our  sun,  and  the  indications  are  that 
Canopus  itself  is  but  a  dwarf  in  comparison  with  other 
suns  that  shed  their  light  from  the  far-off  immensities. 
If,  as  is  estimated,  Argo  is  located  from  us  at  a  distance 
of  30,000  light-years  (light  moving  in  a  single  year 
5,353,561,872,000  miles),  then  this  star  may  be  a  million 
times  larger  than  Canopus  itself.  And  all  this  proves 
that  physically,  at  least,  our  solar  system  is  but  an 
insignificant  member  of  the  stellar  universe.  It  is  like 
an  insect  in  a  countless  swarm  of  systems. 

If  now,  in  addition  to  all,  we  reflect  that  aside  from 
our  earth  there  are  doubtless  millions  of  inhabited 
worlds  in  space,  we  only  address  to  the  imagination 
wonder  on  wonder,  problems  of  the  vastest  order,  prob- 
lems so  great  as  to  defy  solution  by  the  human  intellect.1 
The  view  which  science  furnishes  of  the  steady  march  of 
world  evolution  and  decay  makes  absurd  the  assumption 
that  our  earth  is  the  only  inhabited  world.  The  same 
process  which  has  prepared  this  earth  for  human  habita- 
tion has  wrought  and  ripened  millions  of  other  worlds  for 
a  like  result.  In  view  of  what  is  now  known  of  universal 
world  processes,  it  does  not  seem  to  require  a  great 
stretch  of  imagination  to  believe  that  the  universe,  aside 
from  our  world,  is  at  present  actually  inhabited  by  in- 
numerable families  of  intellectual  and  moral  life.  The 
human  race  holds  no  monopoly  in  either  intellectual  or 

1 1  am  quite  aware  of  the  reasoning  of  the  great  naturalist,  Alfred  Russel 
Wallace,  from  which  he  reaches  the  conclusion  that  the  earth  is  the  only  in- 
habited planet  in  our  solar  system,  and  how  he  undertakes  to  apply  the  same 
reasoning  to  worlds  of  the  stellar  systems.  I  would  not  for  a  moment  think 
of  asserting  my  opinion  in  such  a  matter  as  against  so  high  an  authority. 
Nor  do  I  need  to,  for,  as  is  well  known,  many  of  the  first  authorities  in 
astronomical  science  do  not  share  this  view  of  Mr.  Wallace. 


256      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

moral  faculties.  At  best,  it  is  but  a  humble  colony  in 
the  infinite  domain  of  inhabited  worlds.  The  opportuni- 
ties for  the  attainment  of  all  physical  sciences,  for  his- 
torical study,  for  everything  that  can  add  to  knowledge, 
are  just  as  perfect  in  innumerable  other  worlds  as  in  our 
own.  The  speculations  of  philosophy  and  the  deep  ques- 
tions of  theology  may  be  conceived  to  be  just  as  rife  in 
thousands  of  other  worlds  as  they  have  ever  been  in 
this. 

While  it  may  be  assumed  that  many  world-races 
are  inferior  in  their  present  development  to  our  human 
race,  it  may  with  equal  probability  be  assumed  that 
many  other  races  are  greatly  superior.  In  race  evolu- 
tion some  worlds  may  be  far  behind,  while  others  are 
greatly  in  advance  of,  this  world.  It  is  not  incredible 
that  some  worlds  in  the  arts  and  in  the  sciences,  in 
the  practical  appliances  of  being,  in  the  perfection  of 
their  industrial  and  social  organisms,  in  their  intellectual 
and  moral  advancement,  have  already  reached  a  develop- 
ment the  best  forecasts  of  which  have  as  yet  entered 
but  dimly  into  our  most  prophetic  thought. 

If  now  it  should  be  suggested  that  all  this  is  but  a 
speculation,  it  may  still  be  replied  that  what  we  know 
of  the  physical  universe,  of  its  conditions  and  laws  of 
development,  furnishes  the  most  ample  basis  on  which 
to  build  such  a  speculation,  and  to  lend  to  it  features 
of  greatest  probability. 

To  return  specifically  to  the  thought  with  which  we 
entered  this  discussion,  it  is  easy  to  see,  with  such  meas- 
urements and  conceptions  of  the  universe  before  us, 
how  to  the  naturalistic  mind  the  thought  of  a  Providence 
that   presides   over   the   destiny   of   an   individual   life, 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  257 

or  even  of  the  entire  human  race  itself,  may  seem  exceed- 
ingly improbable,  if  not  even  absurd. 

As  compared  with  the  existence  of  a  universe,  the 
physical  life  of  the  strongest  man  is  as  ephemeral  as 
that  of  an  insect;  in  the  illimitable  spaces,  the  individ- 
ual is  as  insignificant  as  an  atom  of  moisture  in  an 
infinite  cloud-bank;  and  among  multi-myriad  minds  the 
influence  of  the  mightiest  man  is  as  a  breath  which 
instantly  becomes  lost  and  colorless  in  measureless 
atmospheres.  Indeed,  it  may  most  naturally  be  asked, 
what  is  man,  that  the  Power  which  presides  over  an 
infinite  universe  should  be  mindful  of  him,  or  the  son 
of  man,  that  he  should  be  visited? 

We  may,  of  course,  remember  that,  as  great  as  is 
the  universe  in  its  spatial  magnitudes,  it  is  not  less 
wonderful  in  its  microscopic  life.  Under  our  very  feet 
are  families  of  life  so  minute  as  to  be  absolutely  undis- 
coverable  to  us  except  by  instrumental  aid,  and  yet 
whose  organisms  are  of  the  most  perfect  mechanism. 
All  this  can  only  serve  to  multiply  the  wonders  of  exist- 
ence upon  our  thought.  There  seems  some  power 
which  as  certainly  creates  and  perpetuates  this  infinite 
underworld  of  life  as  that  which  maintains  the  stellar 
systems.  But  this  fact  does  not,  perhaps,  much  relieve 
the  natural  skepticism  concerning  the  possible  relations 
of  Providence  to  human  life.  Man  himself  in  relation 
to  the  universe  is  microscopic.  He  is,  physically  meas- 
ured, no  more  than  a  mote  floating  in  solar  spaces. 
Concerning  the  relations  of  Divine  Providence  to  our 
human  world,  no  one  certainly  can  wonder  at  the  in- 
credulity of  the  scientific  mind  which  puts  the  emphasis 
of  its  investigation  upon  the  physical  side  of  the  universe. 


258      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

In  fairness,  recognition  should  perhaps  be  given  to 
another  class  of  facts  which  have  always  more  or  less 
challenged  intelligent  minds  as  to  the  fact  and  moral 
purposes  of  a  Divine  Providence  in  relation  to  human 
life.  These  facts  are  represented  by  the  dwarfed  morality, 
the  immorality,  the  selfishness,  the  cruelty,  the  con- 
scienceless lust,  the  barbaric  injustice,  which  have  so 
largely  prevailed  in  human  history.  I  quote  from  a 
recent  writer  a  pregnant  paragraph  which  well  illustrates 
how  that  which  has  been  called  history  most  largely 
represents  but  a  spectacle  of  "carnage  and  rapacity": 
"Whole  armies  of  men  flung  into  a  field  to  butcher 
each  other  for  an  envied  province  or  an  imagined  slight; 
arson  and  thievery,  pillage  and  atrocious  crimes  ap- 
plauded under  the  sounding  name  of  conquest;  great 
cities  sacked,  the  populations  sold  in  degrading  slavery, 
the  women  to  shameful  lives;  until  a  scant  century  ago, 
the  lower  classes  lost  in  barbarism  and  ignorance,  a 
prey  to  the  wildest  superstitions;  the  upper  class,  a 
privileged  few,  despising  work,  despoiling  the  poor, 
licensed  to  pleasure,  and  often  sunk  in  the  grossest 
bestiality;  human  beings  tossed  to  lions  to  glut  the 
savage  lusts  of  a  Nero;  heroes  fed  to  slow  fires  for  the 
preservation  of  the  religion  of  God;  low  intrigues  and 
court  scandal,  and  women  parading  their  harlotry  be- 
cause they  are  the  prostitutes  of  an  individual  called 
king."1 

Add  to  such  a  picture  the  fact  of  the  meager  intel- 
lectual and  moral  development,  of  the  superstitious, 
the  unmoral,  the  unspiritual,  and  the  unaspiring  char- 
acter of  the  great  majorities  of  men  now  living  upon 

>  Carl  Snyder,  The  World  Machine. 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  259 

the  earth,  and  these  facts  do  not  seem  to  furnish  vivid 
proof  that  this  is  a  world  with  which  an  omnipotent 
and  holy  God  is  dealing  for  the  purpose  of  transforming 
it  into  a  spiritual  and  holy  kingdom  for  his  own  glory. 
In  the  light  of  cold  history  the  vast  majorities  of  the 
myriads  of  men  who  have  lived  upon  the  earth,  intellect- 
ually and  morally  measured,  seem  like  so  much  human 
spawn  which  the  stream  of  time  has  cast  upon  the  banks 
only  that  it  may  perish  and  be  forgotten. 

I  do  not  think  I  fail  to  appreciate  some,  at  least,  of 
the  intellectual  difficulties  which  have  made  it  well-nigh 
impossible  for  many  minds  to  believe  in,  to  receive 
inspiration,  strength,  and  support  from  a  trust  in  a 
Divine  Providence  that  presides  over  the  destinies  of 
the  world  and  the  interests  of  human  life. 

I  must  now,  however,  record  the  conviction  that  all 
material  measurements  of  man's  worth  and  destiny, 
such  as  would  put  a  slighting  estimate  upon  his  values 
because  of  his  apparent  insignificance  in  the  physical 
universe,  or  which  would  denude  him  of  divine  possi- 
bilities because  of  his  poor  present  intellectual  and 
moral  development,  are  both  provincial  as  processes  of 
reasoning  and  utterly  inconclusive. 

The  larger  universe  is  not  the  material,  but  the  spir- 
itual. If  a  final  philosophy  shall  sustain  the  fact  of  a 
material  universe  at  all,  this  universe  will  be  found  to 
be  only  a  vast  theater  in  which  God  has  chosen  to  enact 
in  part — but  only  in  part — the  divine  drama  of  eternity. 
The  human  mind  that  is  able  to  take  so  well-nigh  infinite 
measurements  of  the  physical  universe  has  capacity,  if 
rightly  developed  and  directed,  of  conceiving  a  still 
larger  and  a  vastly  more  inspiring  view  of  the  God  of 


26o      MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

the  universe  himself.  God  and  his  moral  children  are 
the  supreme  facts  of  the  immensities  and  the  eternities. 
The  reason  which  in  its  processes  fails  to  give  first  place 
to  these  facts  may  be  of  a  stalwart  order,  may  yield 
results  of  great  value,  but  it  is  not  sun-crowned,  it  does 
not  keep  company  with  the  supreme  inspirations. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  think  of  inert  and  soulless 
matter  as  belonging  to  the  same  class,  or  as  having 
equal  values,  with  thinking  mind.  The  vastness  of 
suns  and  systems  may  seem  overwhelming,  but  this 
seeming  is  purely  a  sensation  of  thought.  The  suns 
have  no  consciousness  of  themselves,  no  sense  of  their 
relationships.  They  are  each  in  a  sense  monarchs  of 
mighty  empire,  but  they  have  no  knowledge  of  their 
own  rule,  no  affection  for  their  subjects,  no  power  to 
change  their  own  movements  or  the  methods  under 
which  they  exist.  The  science  of  astronomy  now  places 
at  our  command  a  vast  knowledge  of  the  heavens,  but 
this  knowledge  is  shared  not  in  the  slightest  by  the 
brightest  sun  that  burns.  Not  by  a  single  conscious 
thought  has  the  entire  physical  universe  ever  entered 
into  partnership  with  man's  efforts  to  master  its  laws 
and  to  survey  its  wonders.  Its  innumerable  glories 
would  have  absolutely  no  significance  did  they  not 
appeal  to  a  thinking  soul.  Speaking  of  astronomy,  its 
every  spoken  truth  represents  an  achievement  of  the 
human  mind.  Our  present  vast  knowledge  of  the  stellar 
universe,  in  its  every  syllable,  is  the  gift  of  intrepid 
minds  who  have  commanded  for  themselves  ingenious 
methods  of  invading  the  heavens,  and  who  have  brought 
back  to  us  the  laws  and  the  mysteries  of  the  distant 
worlds.     And  so  it  comes  to  be   clearly  seen  that  mind 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  261 

alone  is  great.  This  mite  of  a  being  which  we  call  man 
annexes  the  material  universe  to  the  dominion  of  his 
thought.  He  forces  the  worlds  to  surrender  to  him 
their  laws  and  to  uncover  their  mysteries  to  his  vision, 
and  thus  he  proves  his  infinite  superiority  to  them  all. 

The  testimony  of  astronomy  to  man's  greatness  is 
the  testimony  of  all  science  to  the  same  fact.  The  his- 
tory of  science  is  but  a  history  of  the  triumphal  march 
of  the  human  mind  into  every  realm  of  nature  in  its 
imperious  search  for  truth.  That  which  we  call  nature 
is  like  a  printed  book,  its  every  page  filled  with  high 
values  of  truth.  But  nature  itself  has  no  more  con- 
sciousness of  the  wealth  which  it  carries  than  has  the 
printed  page  of  the  thought-impressions  which  itself 
bears.  It  is  man's  inquisitorial  vision  alone  which 
detects  and  translates  the  divine  original.  I  can  but 
believe  that  the  significance  of  this  fact  is  neither  to  be 
ignored  nor  neutralized.  The  very  fact  that  nature 
yields  to  man  his  sciences,  that  she  responds  to  his 
seeking  mind  in  terms  of  intelligence,  is  proof  of  two 
things:  first,  that  nature,  throughout  her  realms,  shows 
a  plan,  that  she  bears  the  impress  of  a  formative,  a 
creative,  intelligence;  and,  second,  that  man,  by  his 
demonstrated  ability  to  translate  nature  into  science, 
shows  his  intellectual  kinship  with  the  great  Originator. 

Science  has  no  right  to  be  atheistic.  It  deals  only 
with  processes.  It  knows  nothing  about  origins.  The 
great,  the  sufficient,  back-lying  Cause  of  all  things  utterly 
eludes  its  analysis.  Hume  admitted  that  all  we  know 
about  cause  is  reiterated  sequence,  the  constant  succession 
of  events.  All  the  growth  of  thought  since  his  day — 
and  this  growth  has  been  very  great — has  yielded  no 


262       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

better  answer.  But  this  answer  furnishes  absolutely  no 
explanation  of  origins,  of  original  cause.  Tracing  the 
sequence  of  events,  we  can  diagram  the  growth  and 
decay  of  worlds.  From  the  data  thus  furnished  it 
seems  a  sure  prediction  that  our  planet,  now  teeming 
with  life,  will  at  some  time  become  lifeless,  naked,  cold, 
a  bumt-out  cinder.  Such  would  seem  physically  to  be 
the  ultimate  fate  of  all  life-supporting  orbs  of  the  present. 
This  is  a  conclusion  of  science  concerning  physical 
worlds.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  this  law  necessarily 
applies  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  universe.  As  mind 
and  spirit  transcend  matter,  so  for  the  testing  of  mind 
and  spirit  the  law  of  physical  sequence  may  furnish 
not  even  a  clue.  Science,  wonderful  and  rich  as  are 
its  fruits,  has  its  fixed  metes  and  bounds  beyond  which 
it  cannot  go.  To  state  it  simply,  the  time  was  when 
no  life,  much  less  human  life,  existed  upon  this  globe. 
Of  the  origin  of  life  science  is  unable  to  give  any  account. 
If  the  theory  should  be  accepted  that  the  germs  of 
the  first  life  of  earth  drifted  here  from  other  worlds, 
this  would  furnish  no  explanation  of  life's  origin.  It 
would  simply  push  the  problem  farther  back  in  time. 
How  came  the  germs  of  life  to  exist  in  other  worlds? 
And,  as  science  is  utterly  ignorant  of  origins,  of  original 
cause,  so  it  is  equally  incompetent  to  pronounce  upon 
spiritual  destinies. 

I  cannot  resist  the  inference  that  most  men  exclusively 
employed  in  physical  pursuits  fail  to  give  the  kind  of 
direct  emphasis  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  order  which 
the  very  nature  of  things  asserts  for  this  order.  Cer- 
tainly there  is  a  large  company  of  discerning  minds, 
minds  of  the  first  class,  who  are  impressed  that  thought 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  263 

is  something  quite  distinct  from  matter,  and  that  moral 
character,  both  in  its  values  and  its  destinies,  is  some- 
thing which  infinitely  transcends  material  things.  It 
seems  equally  certain  that,  to  the  sanest  thought  of 
our  times,  materialism  fails  utterly  to  furnish  an  adequate 
philosophy  of  the  world.  A  spiritual  philosophy,  a 
moral  order  of  the  universe,  which  asserts  that  en- 
throned above  all  is  a  sovereign  Mind,  a  Mind  that 
controls  all  things  in  the  ultimate  interests  of  righteous- 
ness— this  is  the  philosophy  most  securely  seated  in  the 
best  thought  of  the  present.  And  this  is  a  philosophy 
which  cannot  be  displaced  by  the  largest  findings  of 
science.  The  best  thought  of  the  race  has  doubtless 
been  quite  provincial.  We  have  been  accustomed  to 
think  of  this  human  race  as  a  chief  object  and  end  of 
concern  in  the  moral  universe.  But  suppose  there  are 
millions  of  other  worlds  in  space,  as  indeed  seems  prob- 
able, each  of  which  is  inhabited  by  a  race  of  moral 
intelligence.  In  addition,  suppose  there  are  still  millions 
of  other  worlds,  as  also  seems  probable,  now  in  prepara- 
tion for  future  habitation.  With  such  thoughts  before 
us,  we  have  at  least  a  suggestion  that  the  physical 
universe,  immense,  immeasurable  as  it  is,  is  not  built 
on  too  large  a  scale  to  subserve  the  ends  of  the  moral, 
of  that  imperishable,  universe  for  which  all  things  else 
were  made. 

I  am  not  unmindful  that  these  suggestions  would 
seem  to  call  for  great  remodeling  and  extension  of  our 
conceptions  of  Providence.  The  Providence  of  the  in- 
finite God  and  Sovereign  of  the  moral  universe,  so  far 
from  being  confined  in  its  concern  or  exercise  to  this 
human  world,  is  so  great  and  so  far-reaching  as  to  have 


264       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

equal  application  in  all  moral  realms,  however  far  these 
may  extend.  Our  mundane  theology,  teaching  of  neces- 
sity its  human  lessons,  of  necessity  limited  to  human 
thinking  and  to  human  applications,  is  not  large  enough 
for  the  God  of  the  universe,  not  large  enough  for  appli- 
cation in  all  moral  worlds.  Outside  of  this  human 
realm  there  are  innumerable  moral  families  beyond  our 
ken,  but  with  which  we  may  have  a  real  kinship.  The 
hypothesis  of  the  immensities  seems  to  call  for  nothing 
less  than  this.  The  physical  universe  is  practically 
infinite.  If  it  is  presided  over  by  an  omnipotent  Creator, 
the  One  whom  we  worship  as  an  infinite  Father,  then 
a  rational  interpretation  of  the  universe  itself  would 
seem  to  call  for  an  infinite  colonization  throughout  the 
vast  domain  of  God's  moral  children.  We  probably  in 
our  theology,  in  our  moral  philosophy,  are  most  provin- 
cial. In  these  departments  of  thought  we  have  quite 
likely  made  the  same  mistake  as  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy. 
We  are  geocentric,  while  really  the  moral  universe, 
as  the  physical,  not  only  envelops  us,  but  lifts  itself 
into  innumerable  worlds  beyond  us.  This  conception 
suggests  something,  at  least,  that  seems  worthy  of  an 
infinite  God  and  Father  regnant  in  an  infinite  universe. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  suggestions  like  these  raise 
questions  without  number,  questions  many  of  which  no 
mortal  thought  at  present  can  answer.  I  am  equally 
impressed  that  the  problems  of  existence,  the  philosophy 
of  Providence,  are  too  deep  and  too  vast  for  solution 
by  the  human  mind.  But  this  is  only  to  state  in  another 
form  the  emotions  of  Saint  Paul  when,  overwhelmed 
with  the  thought  of  God,  he  was  forced  to  exclaim, 
"How   unsearchable  are  his  judgments,   and   his   ways 


MIRACLES  AND  OTHER  WONDERS  265 

past  finding  out!"  I  can  claim  no  equality  to  framing 
a  philosophy  adequate  to  the  suggestions  herewith  sub- 
mitted. I  can  only  feel  that  the  territory  of  material 
atheism  can  furnish  no  fitting  home  for  the  human 
spirit.  Its  logic  not  only  makes  life  meaningless,  it 
converts  it  into  an  enormous  cheat.  It  smothers  in 
an  atmosphere  of  negation  and  despair  all  that  is  best 
in  human  hopes,  all  that  is  loftiest  and  most  prophetic 
in  the  highest  inspirations  of  the  soul.  In  presence  of 
the  supreme  problems  of  being  the  proper  attitude  of 
the  human  mind  is  that  of  profoundest  humility. 

I  believe  in  God,  the  Father  Almighty.  I  believe  in 
the  everlasting  persistence  and  supremacy  of  the  moral 
universe.  I  believe  that  man  is  God's  immortal  child. 
The  material  heavens  and  earth  may  wax  old  and  pass 
away.  Suns  and  systems  may  cease;  but  the  soul  of 
man  will  continue.  Man,  the  undying  offspring  of  God, 
was  made  to  be  a  citizen  of  imperishable  realms.  The 
Infinite  alone  marks  the  limits  of  human  possibility. 
The  spiritual  man,  as  God's  child,  will  mature  ever  into 
the  divine  likeness  and  perfections.  His  growth  will 
be  everlasting.  The  resources  of  all  infinities  will 
ultimately,  at  some  point,  sometime,  come  into  his 
possession.  Upon  his  children  the  Infinite  Father  will 
evermore  bestow  his  wealth,  and  with  their  endless 
growth  they  shall  evermore  receive  increasing  revelations 
of  his  exhaustless  glories. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


267 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Works  read   or  consulted   which  have   entered   suggestively   into 
the  making  of  this  volume : 

Allen,  A.  V.  G. :  Christian  Institutions. 

Continuity  of  Christian  Thought. 
Bacon,  Benjamin  W. :  Beginnings  of  Gospel  Story. 
Ballard,  Frank:  Christian  Essentials. 

Theomonism  True. 
Begbie.  Harold:  Twice  Born  Men. 
Bowne,  Borden  P. :  Studies  in  Christianity. 

The  Divine  Immanence. 

The  Essence  of  Religion. 
Brailsford,  Edward  J.:  The  Spiritual  Sense  in  Sacred  Legend. 
Brierley,  J. :  Aspects  of  the  Spiritual. 
Cairns,  D.  S. :  Christianity  in  the  Modern  World. 
Cambridge  Modern  History. 
Carlyle,  Thomas:  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship. 
Clarke,  W.  N. :  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  God. 

Sixty  Years  with  the  Bible. 
Cornill,    Carl:    Introduction    to    the    Canonical    Books    of    the    Old 

Testament. 
Cunningham,  W. :  Christianity  and  Social  Questions. 
D'Aubigne :  History  of  the  Reformation. 
Denny,  James:  Jesus  and  the  Gospels. 
Dewey,  John:  Influence  of  Darwin  on  Philosophy. 
Dods,  Marcus:  The  Bible,  its  Origin  and  Nature. 
Driver,  S.  R. :  The  Book  of  Genesis. 

Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Modern  Research  as  Illustrating  the  Bible. 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 
Fairbairn,  A.  M. :  The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion. 

The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology. 
Ferris,  G. :  The  Growth  of  the  Faith. 
Fisher,  George  P. :  History  of  Christian  Doctrine. 
Flick,  Alexander  C. :  The  Rise  of  the  Mediaeval  Church. 
Forsyth,  P.  T. :  The  Person  and  Place  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Garvie,  A.  E. :  Studies  in  the  Inner  Life  of  Jesus. 
Geden,  A.  S. :  Introduction  to  the  Hebrew  Bible. 
Gilbert,  George  H:  Interpretation  of  the  Bible. 
Gordon,  George  A. :  The  Christ  of  To-day. 

Religion  and  Miracle. 

269 


27o       MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 

Gore,  Charles,  et  al. :  Lux  Mundi. 

Gregory,  Caspar  Rend:  The  Canon  and  Text  of  the  New  Testament. 

Hastings:  Bible  Dictionary. 

Horton,  F. :  My  Belief. 

Hurst,  John  F. :  History  of  the  Christian  Church. 

James,  William:  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience. 

Jefferson,  Charles  E.:  Things  Fundamental. 

Jones,  E.  Griffith:  Ascent  Through  Christ. 

Jordan,  W.  G. :  Biblical  Criticism  and  Modern  Thought. 

Kent,  Charles  F. :  Beginnings  of  Hebrew  History. 

The  Origin  and  Permanent  Value  of  the  Old  Testament. 
King,  Henry  C. :  Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness. 

Reconstruction  in  Theology. 
Knudson,  A.  C. :  The  Old  Testament  Problem. 
Lea,  Henry  Charles:  History  of  the  Inquisition. 
Lidgett,  J.  Scott:  The  Christian  Religion,  its  Meaning  and  Proof. 
Lindsay,  T.  M.:  History  of  the  Reformation. 
Macalister,  Donald:  Religion  and  the  Modern  Mind. 
Mathews,  Shailer:  The  Gospel  and  the  Modern  Man. 
McClintock  and  Strong:  Cyclopaedia. 

McFadyen,  John  E. :  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament. 
McGiffert,  Arthur  C. :  The  Apostolic  Age. 
Merrick  Lectures,  1907,  The  Social  Application  of  Religion. 
Mitchell,  H.  G. :  The  World  Before  Abraham. 
Nash,  Henry  S. :  The  History  of  the  Higher  Criticism. 
Orr,  James:  The  Problem  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Revelation  and  Inspiration. 

The  Faith  of  a  Modern  Christian. 
Peabody,  Francis  G. :  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Christian  Character. 

Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question. 

The  Religion  of  the  Educated  Man. 
Peake,  Arthur  S. :  A  Critical  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament. 
Peyton,  W.  W. :  The  Three  Greatest  Forces. 
Pfleiderer,  Otto:  The  Development  of  Christianity. 
Price,  I.  M.:  The  Ancestry  of  Our  English  Bible. 
Pringle,  A.:  The  Faith  of  a  Wayfarer. 
Rauschenbusch,  Walter:  Christ  and  the  Social  Crisis. 
Rice,  William  N. :  Christian  Faith  in  an  Age  of  Science. 
Rogers,  Robert  W. :  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 

The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 
Sabatier,  Auguste:  Religions  of  Authority  and  the  Religion  of  the 

Spirit. 
Salmon,  George :  The  Human  Element  in  the  Gospels. 
Sanday,  William :  The  Life  of  Christ  in  Modern  Research. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  271 

Schaff,  Philip:  Mediaeval  Church. 

Snyder,  Carl:  The  World  Machine. 

Stalker,  James:  The  Ethic  of  Jesus. 

Stevens,  George  B. :  The  Theology  of  the  New  Testament. 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel:  Man's  Place  in  the  Universe. 

Ward,  Harry  F. :  Social  Ministry. 

Warren,  William  F. :  The  Earliest  Cosmologies. 

Westcott  and  Hort:  Revised  Greek  English  New  Testament. 

Zahn,  Theodor:  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament. 

Additional  to  the  above,  many  books  and  review  articles  have 
lent  their  tone,  quality,  and  impression  in  a  way  now  impossible  to 
trace. 


INDEX 


273 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Ezra,  quoted,  135 

Abraham,  story  of  migration,  96 

Albigenses,  9 

America,  discovery  of,  25 ;  a  land  of 
promise,  26 

Anthropology,   history   of,    151 

Apocrypha,  books  of,  68,  no;  ac- 
cepted by  Council  of  Trent,  131 

Archaeology,  study  of,  53,  54;  light 
on  ancient  peoples,  91,  92 

Astronomy,  new  views,  39 ;  testi- 
mony of,  261 

Athanasius,  70;  doctrine  of  Trinity, 
72;  theologian,  158 

Augustine,  70;  his  influence,  in 
theology,  72 ;  quoted,  72 ;  theology 
of,  163 ;  early  life  of,  223 

Babel,  story  of,  99 

Bacon,  philosophy  of,  45 

Bacon,  Roger,  condemned  by  In- 
quisition, 10 

Babylon,  civilization  of,  54;  tradi- 
tion of,  100 

Bartholomew,  Saint,  massacre  of,  9 

Baur,  hypotheses,   141 

Bible,  circulation  forbidden,  10; 
now  better  understood,  33  >  m 
time  of  Reformation,  55 ;  neces- 
sity for  critical  study  of,  66;  God's 
guardianship  of,  67;  changes  in 
vision  of,  77;  inspiration,  149,  150 

Biblical  criticism,  recent  develop- 
ment, 55 ;  consensus  of  scholar- 
ship, 61,  65,  83;  the  term  "higher 
criticism,"  62,  85 ;  movement  in- 
evitable, 66;  new  view,  75;  au- 
thor's position,  81 

Bishop,  Roman,  a  lesser  pope,  n; 
rights  of  a  feudal  lord,  12 


Bowne,  Professor,  quoted,  172,  246 
Brierley,  J.,  quoted,  80,  148 
Briggs,  Professor,  quoted,  87 
Browning,  quoted,  202 
Brunelleschi,  22 

Bruno,  murdered  by  Inquisition,  10 
Bushmen,  Australian,  50 
Byron,  quoted,  2 

Cairns,  quoted,  172,  202,  218 

Calvin,  philosophy  of,  163 

Canaanites,  destruction  of,  153 

Canon,  the  term,  130 

Canossa,  Henry  IV  at,  6 

Carlyle,  quoted,  31,  148 

Carthage,  Council  of,  131 

Charles  the  Great,  5 

Christ,  historic,  rediscovery  of,  196; 
influence  of  his  character  and 
teaching,  197;  contemporary  of 
all  ages,  203 ;  reasoning  of  scribes 
and  rulers  concerning,  205 ;  his 
real  place,  213;  divine  mission  of, 
219;  the  ideal  King,  234 

Christian  Church,  directed  by  two 
forces,  159;  missions  of,  195; 
founded  by  Jesus  Christ,  207; 
corrupted  by  human  abuses,  207; 
inspirer  and  educator,  208 

Christianity,  popular  successes  of, 
156;  witnesses  to  truth  of,  221 

Christlieb,  quoted,  242 

Church,  Roman,  center  of  authority, 
4;  absolute  despotism,  13;  bene- 
ficence, 14;  enormously  rich,  15; 
arrogance  of,  74;  claims  and  as- 
sumptions of,  158 

Civilization,  Western  and  Roman 
contrasted,    198 

Classic  learning,  21 


275 


276        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 


Clement  of  Alexandria,  70;  quoted, 
71 ;  theologian,   158 

Coliseum,  capacity  and  uses  of,  197 

Columbus,  25,  31 

Coolidge,  Susan,  quoted,  242 

Comparative  religions,  study  of,  48, 
49,  52 

Constantinople,  capture  by  the 
Turks,  21 

Copernicus,  theory  of,  34 

Creation,  in  six  days,  40;  two  ac- 
counts in  Genesis,  in 

Crusades,  7 

Daniel,  one  of  the  latest  books,  123 

Dark  Ages,  period  known  as,  5,  151 

Darwin,  his  great  book,  36;  esti- 
mate of  himself,  37;  his  philos- 
ophy much  misunderstood,  37,  38 

Da  Vinci,  22 

Deuteronomy,  author  of,  118,  119 

De  Vere,  Aubrey,  quoted,  242 

Diaz,  25 

Disciples,  convictions  and  conduct 
of,  204 

Discouragement,  no  valid  ground 
for,  199 

Documentary  theory,  of  Old  Testa- 
ment, 83,  112,  113 

Donatello,  22 

Draper,  on  Bacon,  47 

Driver,  Professor,  quoted,  54,  86, 
90,   104,    112 

Earth,  center  of  universe,  39;  man's 

advent  upon,  41 
Education,      standard     of     Middle 

Ages,  15 
Egypt,  civilization  of,  54 
Elizabethan  letters,  age  of,  23 
Elmslie,  Professor,  quoted,  90 
Elohim,  114 

Elzevir  Greek  Testament,   137 
Ephraimite     prophetic      narratives, 

116 


Epistles,  authorship  of,  142,  144 
Erasmus,  first  printed  Greek  Testa- 
ment, 136 
Excommunication.   10,  II 
Exploration,    scientific,    31 

Fairbairn,  Principal,  quoted,  87, 
128,  148,  155 

Fathers,  study  of  necessary,  70 

Fetich-worshipers,   50 

Fiske,  John,  quoted,   140 

Flood,  story  of  the,  98,  99;  tradi- 
tional, 103 ;  Driver's  opinion,   104 

Galileo,  recantation  of,  10 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  25 

Genesis,  general  interpretation  of, 
40;  relation  of  Moses  to,  98;  two 
accounts  of  creation,  in 

Geology,  its  place  among  sciences, 
36 ;  changes  in  belief  concerning, 
40,  41 

God,  Fatherhood  of,  163;  the  se- 
cret of  incarnation,  167;  basis 
of  greatest  of  the  commandments, 
168;  modern  emphasis  of,  169 

Goethe,  quoted,  128 

Gordon,   Dr.   George  A.,  cited,  245 

Gospels,  authorship  of,  143,  144 

Gibbon,  quoted,  2 

Gilbert,  Dr.,  quoted,  84 

Greece,  philosophy  of,  45 

Gregory  VII,  consecrated,  5 ;  de- 
poses Henry  IV,  6 ;  dies  in  exile,  6 

Gunpowder,  introduction  of,  24,  25 

Hadley,  Samuel  H.,  his  experiences, 

225 
Hammurabi,  code  of,  92 
Hebrews,  authorship  of,  131,  143 
Hebrew   history,   engrossing  study, 

91 ;  myths  and  legends,  97,  98 
Henry  IV,  humiliated  by  Gregory,  6 
Hildebrand,  5 


INDEX 


277 


Hippo,  Synod  of,  131 

Hort,  Professor,  cited,  134,  135,  143 

Humanism,  22 

Huss,  burned  at  stake,   10 

Huxley,  quoted,  242 

Idolatry,  Israel's  tendencies  to,  93 
Innocent  III,  master  statesman,  7 
Inquisition,  infamy  of  Middle  Ages, 

8;     its     ravages     and     relentless 

cruelty,  9 
Index  Expurgatorius,  10 
Interdict,  10,  1 1 
Interpretation,  growth  of,  149 
Isaiah,  monotheism  of,  93 ;  product 

of  different  authors,  123 
Italy,   the  schoolmaster  of  Europe, 

22 

Jerome,  theologian,  158 

Jews,  polytheistic  ancestry  of,  92 

Jordan,  Professor,  quoted,  113 

Josephus,  quoted,  100 

Judean  prophetic  narratives,  114 

Kant,  his  philosophy,  48 
Kent,  Professor,  quoted,  92,  102 
Kepler,  34,  124 
King,  President,  quoted,  85 
Kingdom,    the,    constructive    forces 
of    180;    Christ's    conception    of, 
173 ;   hindrances  to   its  incoming, 
180;   ideal   of,   182;    agencies    for 
building,  189;  mission  of,  192 
Knudson,    Professor,    quoted,    108, 

154 
Koran,  tradition  of,  139 

Lachmann,   Professor,    137 
Laplace,  nebular  theory,  35 
Lea,  H.  C,  quoted,  2 
Lecky,  quoted,  202 
Light,  speed  in  traveling,  254 
Literary  History,  138 


Luther,  at  Diet  of  Worms,  31,  32; 
quoted,  73;  age  faced  by,  159; 
translator  of  Scriptures,  161 

Macaulay,  estimate  of  Bacon's  phil- 
osophy, 46,  47 

Alan,  advent  on  earth,  41 ;  univer- 
sally a  religious  being,  50;  un- 
dying offspring  of  God,  265 ;  his 
possible  growth  eternal,  265 

Manuscripts,  variations   in,    132-134 

Mariner's  compass,  24 

McAuley,  Jerry,  one  of  his  char- 
acteristic testimonies,  224 

Michael  Angelo,  22 

Miracles,  intellectual  temper  con- 
cerning, 243 ;  not  only  possible 
but  probable,  245 ;  difficulty  of, 
246 ;  wrought  by  authorized  agents 
of  Christ,  247 ;  assumption  of  calls 
for  Providence,  251 

Missionary  work,  49,  52 

Modern  critical  movement,  benefi- 
cent mission  of,   161 

Modern  thought,  the  term,  3;  its 
foundations,  33 

Money,  not  in  itself  an  evil,  189 

Midler,   Max,  49 

Muratori  Fragment,  130 

Murillo,  cited,  191 

Nash,  Professor,  quoted,  30,  44,  60 

Nero,  reign  of,   197 

Newcomb,  Professor,  cited,  254 

New  Jerusalem,  the,  177 

New  Testament,  books  of,  68 ;  criti- 
cism, 129;  divisions,  129;  ques- 
tions as  to  authorship  and  gen- 
uineness, 130;  variations  in  exist- 
ing manuscripts,  132-134;  textual 
revision  not  yet  complete,  138; 
facts  to  remember,  144;  literature 
of,  208 

Newton,  34;  his  theory,  35 


278        MODERN  THOUGHT  AND  TRADITIONAL  FAITH 


Old  Testament,  books  of,  68;  divis- 
ions in  Canon,  iog ;  varied  nar- 
ratives of  some  events,  in 

Orr,  Professor,  quoted,  128 

Organized  labor,  a  cause  of  its 
troubles,  236 

Origen,  70;  fanciful  interpretation 
by,  71 ;  theologian,  158 

Otho  the  Great,  5 

Pantheon,  gods  in,  156 

Papacy,  arrogant  claims  of,  74 

Papal  Church,  its  ban  of  fear,  52; 
its  variance  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 160 

Papal  hierarchy,  its  composition,  11 

Paper-making,  art  of,  24 

Paul,  Saint,  Epistles  of,  131 

Pentateuch,  canonized,  109;  various 
authors,   1 1 1 

Perron,  Anquetil,  du,  49 

Personal  to  the  reader,  81 

Philip  II,  and  Index  Expurgatorius, 
10 

Philosophy  and   critical   science,  45 

Philosophy,  inductive,  45,  48 ;  Greek, 
45.  I57>  Greek  and  Roman  com- 
pared, 157 

Plato,  33,  51 

Pope,  dominating  power,  5,  8;  suc- 
cessor of  Saint  Peter,  6;  advisers, 
11 

Power,  God's  manifestations  of 
cited,  238 

Prayer,  rational  room  for,  247 ;  man 
a  praying  creature,  247;  teaching 
of  Bible  concerning,  248;  ad- 
dressed to  the  Father  in  the  name 
of  his  Son,  249;  subordinate  to 
the  divine  will,  250;  a  divine 
telepathy,  251 

Priest,  parish,  intimate  relation  to 
people,  12;  theological  training,  15 

Priestly   narratives,    120-122 


Printing,   24 

Protestantism,  a  revolt  against  ar- 
rogance of  Papacy,  74 
Ptolemaic  philosophy,  34,  40 
Puritanism,  23 


Raphael,  22 

Rauschenbusch,    Professor,   quoted, 

44 

Reformers,  service  in  translating 
Scriptures,  74 

Religion,  deep  in  human  nature,  50 

Renaissance,  meaning  of  term,  19; 
era  of  transition,  20 

Reuchlin,    137 

Revelation,  God's  processes  in,  51, 
95-97;  factors  in,  149 

Rice,  Professor,  quoted,  242 

Richter,   quoted,    254 

Reformation,  changes  wrought  by, 
2T, ;  emancipator  of  the  human 
conscience,  28;  emphasis  of,  161 

Roman  Empire,  fall  of,  3 ;  a  world- 
tragedy,  4;  its  policies,  156;  dis- 
integrated, 158 

Rousseau,  quoted,   128 


Salmon,  Dr.,  quoted,  64 

Science,  assumptions  of,  245 ;  ig- 
norant of  origins,  261 

Second  coming  of  Christ,  view  of 
early  Church  concerning,  176; 
difficulties  of  the  teaching,  176 

Seneca,  quoted,  45 

Service,  divinity  of,  183;  law  of,  184 

Sinaiticus,  Codex,  137 

Snyder,  Carl,  quoted,  30,  44,  258 

Socrates,  51 

Solar  system,  vastness  of,  252;  gen- 
eralizations concerning,  252 ;  its 
diameter,  253 ;  an  insignificant 
unit  in  other  stellar  systems,  253 


INDEX 


2  79 


Spectrum,  solar,  what  it  shows,  252; 

kinship  of  matter,  253 
Stewardship,  defined,  185 
Strauss,  Life  of  Jesus,  141 
Symonds,  J.  A.,  quoted,  18 

"Textus  Receptus,"  137 

Theism,  of  to-day,  243 

Teschendorf,    137 

Titian,  22 

Torquemada,  9 

Tregelles,  137 

Trent,   Council   of,  pronouncement, 

130 
Tycho  Brahe,  34 


Universe,  microscopic  life  of,  257; 
practically  infinite,  264 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  quoted,  218 
Vaticanus,  Codex,  137 

Waldenses,  9 

Wealth,  Christ's  utterances  con- 
cerning, 186 ;  moral  uses  of,  188 

Westcott,   137 

World,  intellectual  and  moral  in- 
fancy of,  192 

Wycliffe,  burned  at  stake,  ic; 
quoted,  73;  age  faced  by,  159; 
translator  of  Scriptures,  161 


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